Horsefeathers
by alchemicmonkey
Summary: A single light can disperse the darkness. Salvation. Redemption. Acceptance. Love. These are things he must learn, if he wants to help her.
1. Installment 1

**Installment 1: The Fall**

It was a warm night in Central City, around nine-thirty. A gentle spring breeze wafted through the buildings and stirring the leaves on trees in the park pleasantly. It was a Thursday night in mid-spring, so it was a perfect night for a night out. There were couples here and there, one pair going to the theater, another going to a restaurant, so on and so forth. Groups of friends paraded down the streets, exhibiting various levels of intoxication.

The breeze was a bit harsher on top of a building eight stories tall. A lone figure walked to the edge of the building and gazed at the street far below. The oversized jacket flapped crazily in the breeze, and locks of hair flew into the figure's face. There was a woman opening a window in a building directly across the street. She paused to watch the figure, curiously.

There was a car parked directly beneath the figure. A small, emotionless smile worked its way across the figure's face. That would be perfect. The figure took one step forward...

"Thanks for a wonderful night," a brunette woman said as she stepped out of the car. "I'll see you around."

Roy Mustang nodded in reply, wearing half a smile. He waited until the woman was safely inside her apartment building, and then sighed heavily. He had had a very long day at work, filling out mountain after mountain of paperwork under Riza Hawkeye's careful watch. Well, that was what he got for slacking off... not that he wouldn't let work pile up again. There were other things he preferred doing. Signing papers all day long wasn't his idea of fun, so to speak. And, of course, there was that lecture about not doodling on important documents...

"No! Someone, help!" a woman shrieked piercingly.

Roy flinched as something large and heavy struck the roof of his car. A pale, skinny forearm and hand dangled in front of the windshield, followed by a trickle of red blood. Alarmed, he all but leapt out of his car to see what had hit it.

He blanched when he saw the figure of a teenage girl, lying motionless on the car roof.

* * *

"Rumors say you witnessed a suicide attempt last night," Riza chattered the next morning. Roy glanced up and chuckled dryly.

"I don't know if I'd call someone jumping onto my car 'witnessing a suicide' although my car will need to have the dent fixed," he replied.

"The girl obviously jumped from that roof with the intent of ending her life. You just had the good luck to park right underneath her and break her fall," the blond woman smiled a small smile.

"I don't believe in things like luck," he snorted. Of course not, why would he? He was a reporter. Fortune and luck didn't exactly go hand-in-hand with his job.

"I got the copy of the headline!" Kain Fuery exclaimed, bursting into the office they all shared and waving a newspaper around. Everyone usually did their work from home and stopped by to hand in an article, but there were occasions where everyone working under Roy gathered in the tiny office. Today was one of those days, because they would be putting out a new issue of their magazine that Sunday. Jean Havoc was asleep at his corner of the work table, the remnants of his cigarette still smoldering in the ashtray.

"What's it say?" Heymans Breda inquired around a mouthful of a Big Mac.

"At approximately nine-thirty last night, there was a suicide attempt on the corner of Main Street and Parkington Avenue. Eyewitnesses report to seeing a young girl, around seventeen, leap from the top of an apartment building. Luckily for her, there was a parked car right beneath her. The car broke her fall and she is now in Central City Hospital. The girl's identity has been confirmed. Sharlen Hawkeye, a junior at North City High School, has been hospitalized with minor injuries-" Kain read aloud before Riza snatched the paper out of his hands.

"Hawkeye... is she related to you?" Breda inquired, turning towards Riza.

"I'm leaving," Riza said suddenly, tossing the paper onto Roy's desk and storming out of the office. "I'll be back later."

"Hey, Hawkeye!" Roy called after her. "What the hell was that about?" he asked, following her down the hall of the publishing company.

"If you want an explanation, you better come along," she huffed, pulling on her jacket.

"So start explaining," he demanded when they were strapped down in Riza's Jeep.

"She's my cousin, my dad's brother's kid. She stayed with my father and me for a few years while her parents were in the hospital. They had been in an accident with a bullet train and were hospitalized with severe injuries. Even though they recovered, they weren't allowed to leave. They died there, and Sharlen lived with us for three years, until her mother's sister took custody of her. We became close friends, though she was far younger than me, only four at the time of the accident, but after her parents died she became more withdrawn. This is the first I've even heard of her since," Riza said monotonously. "You will not mention this to anyone."

"C'mon, Hawkeye, I know better than that," Roy scoffed, pulling out his iPhone to check the time, a way to avoid eye contact. For some reason or another, he felt guilty about asking and making her explain what sounded like a painful experience. Sure, they had practically grown up together, but there were some lines one just shouldn't cross.

They barreled down the highway towards the heart of the teeming metropolis and capital of the country. He couldn't help noticing the firm set to her jaw and the whiteness of her knuckles on the steering wheel.

"Wait, her name is Sharlen? That's bizarre," he muttered partially to himself.

"She changed it after her parent's death. It used to be Charlene, but she changed the spelling and pronunciation," Riza replied curtly.

"Oh," he replied, tilting his head to gaze out the window at the passing scenery. Absently, he wondered why he even bothered to come along. It wasn't his problem... oh yeah; he had been the one who called 911. After all, she had landed on _his_ car. He felt a bit responsible. And he wanted to see if she was okay. An eight-story drop wouldn't just leave bumps and bruises.

"I'm here to see Sharlen Hawkeye," Riza said to the woman running the reception desk.

"Are you friend or family?" she asked, clearly more interested in Roy. She smiled and winked at him. He just glanced at her in response.

"I'm her cousin," the blond woman replied tartly.

"Room 217," the receptionist sighed, picking up the phone as it rang.

"Well, look who's here," Roy said smugly. He watched as the person walking down the hall flinched, grimaced, swore under his breath and pulled out his headphones.

"God damn it," the blond teen replied. "It's bad enough I see you at work. Now you're harassing me outside work too?"

"Nice to see you too, Edward. How's Alphonse?" Roy chattered, signaling to Riza that he'd catch up with her later.

"He woke up," Edward replied, looking awkwardly at his beat up Converse. "Good thing too, they were thinking of cutting it off today."

"That's good. You're not gonna get in trouble for missing school?" Roy asked, eyeing Edward's casually worn Central Academy uniform. The tie was loosened and the top two or three buttons undone. He could barely make out the edge of a tattoo he knew covered the blond's entire right arm.

"I got called out to the principal's office. You really think I'd cut class to see my brother?" Edward rolled his eyes.

"Yes," Roy replied.

"So what are you doing here? I doubt you're meeting a woman."

"Not exactly. I came with Hawkeye," he replied.

"Oh yeah, I saw that on the news. You saved some suicidal brat's life. Congrats, you've won the affection of millions of people country-wide," Edward drawled. "I've gotta go. Fifth period will be starting soon and I can't afford to miss that class today."

"Have fun!" Roy teased, knowing full well that Edward hated his fifth period music class and today was a big test that made up seventy percent of his grade. He had started a part-time job at the magazine on a recommendation from his English teacher, and Roy had to admit that he liked having someone to pick on other than his workmates, who were no longer any fun to tease. Well, except that one time Kain found that stray dog and Breda had a meltdown... he sauntered down the hall to the elevator, half muttering a song he heard on the radio that morning.

"My chick bad, something 'bout good, my chick do things your chick wish she could..." he mumbled as he stepped out and continued to the room the receptionist mentioned.

"What the hell'd you do that for?" a feminine voice cried.

"Because you did something completely stupid, you idiot!" Riza's voice replied fiercely.

"You didn't have to hit me!"

"Uh... should I wait in the car?" Roy asked meekly, sticking his head inside the door.

"No, come in," Riza replied.

Roy walked into the room slowly, afraid he'd be hit as well though he had done nothing wrong. He saw Riza, dressed in her usual jeans and T-shirt, standing next to a hospital bed. Sitting in the bed and cradling one cheek was a girl probably half Riza's size. A thick white bandage wound around her head, making her dark red hair stand out sharply in the blindingly white room.

"Sharlen, you ought to thank this man for saving your life," Riza said firmly.

"Why?"

"Because he saved your life, that's why! Why would you even do something like that?" Riza cried, her voice shooting through two octaves.

"None of your business," Sharlen replied sourly, turning her head away and moving her hand from her cheek to her neck. Roy thought he saw a small scar.

"I see you're as obstinate as ever..." Riza sighed.

"I don't want to thank him. He ruined my death. If anything I should hate him," Sharlen whispered loud enough to be heard.

"I'm going to see when you can be released," Riza huffed, walking out of the room briskly.

Roy stood there awkwardly. He wished his phone would ring so he wouldn't have to stay there with that strange girl. She kept glancing at him and back out the window, looking utterly displeased.

"Why?"

"What?" Roy asked, unsure if he was being addressed or not.

"Why did you bother saving me?" Sharlen clarified, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Because people were watching and I have a reputation to uphold," he replied stiffly.

Sharlen laughed dryly. "You actually care what people think about you?"

"You ask that like you're asking why I'm wearing a pink unicorn mascot outfit," Roy said in a similar tone.

"People will only let you down. They use you, betray you, blame you, step on you... most of all, they lie to you. I hate people. They're always so damn nosy, meddling in affairs they should leave alone," she snorted. "Like you, Mister Reporter. You should've left me alone."

"And let you die?"

"Yes."

"You're strange," Roy mused.

"I've met stranger. I once knew a girl who ate couch cushions like they were Skittles. She was featured on a TV show once."

"Are you really Hawkeye's cousin?"

"Yes. Why does that matter? Are you her boyfriend?"

"In my dreams, maybe. We're just friends," Roy replied.

"Humph, that's what they all say."

"It said in the papers that you attend North City High. Why are you in Central?" Roy inquired, feeling like he was interviewing the girl. Maybe he could use it in an article or something and get pumped up from lowly reporter to editor. He really wanted to be editor-in-chief, but that would take a while. First, he'd have to get rid of the current editor-in-chief, King Bradley...

"Why should I tell you? What business is it of yours?" she asked, looking at him straight. "You didn't even know I existed until last night."

"Were you transferring schools?" he continued. "Central has quite a few good high schools. Central Academy is among the top five best schools in the country."

Sharlen paused and her gaze fell to her bandaged hands.

"Yes, to the Central Academy culinary program. One thing led to another and that's all I can tell you," she answered. "Maybe... if we get to know one another better, I'll tell you more. You don't seem as detestable as the other people I've had the displeasure of meeting."

"That's good to know," Roy felt himself smile. He thought he saw traces of one on Sharlen. They went away when he heard the door open.

"You'll be out of here within a week. You're healing faster than expected, and you're welcome to live with me," Riza said as she swept into the room. "Sharlen."

"Yes. Thank you, but... since I'm still alive... I'll only stay until I get settled in my dorm at Central Academy," Sharlen replied stiffly.

"I'm gonna go see how Alphonse is doing..." Roy muttered to Riza as he stood and walked towards the door.

"Right," Riza nodded. "I stopped by earlier and he looks much better. He'll be glad to see you."

"Alphonse... oh, that boy from the train crash. I remember reading about that. It was an article you worked on, cousin," Sharlen chattered when Roy had vanished down the hall.

"Would you like to meet him? I can arrange that..."

"It's fine. We'll be attending the same school soon. He goes to Central Academy, right? With his brother the genius... I forget his name. That was some freak accident, wasn't it? I heard the brother escaped with only some mangled limbs, while Alphonse went into a coma."

"Yes, Edward did have less damage," Riza confirmed.

"How would you arrange a meeting? Did you interview Edward and become best buds?" she asked sarcastically.

"Edward works for us part-time. If you want the details, you'll have to ask him. Just don't mention his height," Riza grinned. "I have to get back to work. Our new issue comes out this weekend so we're on a major time crunch right now. I'll drop by when I have more time."

"Pfft, you'll be here tomorrow. Just watch. I know you, cousin," Sharlen smirked. "You're not like the other despicable people in this world. You actually give a damn about me."

"That's reassuring," Riza laughed.

"Y'know... tall, dark, and nosy doesn't seem too bad. Maybe I'll thank him, if he comes again," Sharlen sighed, settling back on the pile of pillows.

* * *

"A midget with a braid told me you finally woke up," Roy said smugly.

"Mustang!" Alphonse, a young teen with sand-colored hair exclaimed. "I thought you'd drop by."

"You're looking a lot better. The last time I saw you... well, you were unconscious. Did they give a damage report yet?" Roy asked, taking the empty seat near the boy's bed.

"All the external injuries have healed. They're still waiting for the X-rays of my ribs but the doctor said they're healing nicely. No mental damage, at least, none I'm aware of. I have almost all my memories," Alphonse replied with a kind smile.

"Almost all?" Roy repeated.

"I don't remember anything about the accident, really. I remember Brother looking at me, eyes wide in fear. There was a bright light illuminating his face, followed by a loud noise. That's all I remember about it..."

"But everything else?"

Alphonse's smile broadened, "Everything else... there are a few gaps here and there, but everything's intact for the most part. It's almost like bad dreams that you can't remember much about, you know?"

"Your brother looked like he was going to freak out like those crazy celebrity fangirls when I ran into him earlier," Roy sneered.

"I can understand that. After all, we're all we've got. Mom's dead and Dad's still away, so we have to stick together," Alphonse nodded. "He said that every time he came to visit. He told me about your chivalrous rescue last night too."

"Ugh, don't mention that," Roy grumbled.

"Why? Did the girl die?" Alphonse inquired softly.

"No, she's alive and well, though I think she might be holding something against me because I 'prevented her death' or some shit," he drawled, making air-quotes with his fingers as he talked.

"You know, Mustang, suicidal people don't always want to die. Most just want to end whatever pain they're in. Maybe you should try to understand her and help her. That's a fair trade, right?"

"No, a fair trade is her fixing the dent she made in my car. It looks like it went halfway through a trash compactor," Roy grunted.

"I doubt it's that bad," Alphonse chuckled.

Roy pulled out his phone and showed the teen a picture of the damage.

"How far did she fall?"

"Eight stories. This is proof that gravity works," Roy mumbled, shoving his phone back in his pocket.

"You're quoting a kid's movie, really?" Riza's voice drawled playfully. "We've got work to do, so let's get going."

"Hey, that chick owes me," Roy retorted. "I'll see you later, Alphonse."

"Bye, thanks for stopping by," Alphonse waved them off with a friendly smile.

"She owes you? Well, I'll make sure she pays her dues," Riza smiled.

"She better, after all I've done. How am I gonna pick up chicks now that my car's all smushed?" Roy whined.

"You like seafood, right?" Riza asked as she slid into the driver's seat. Roy swallowed hard as he buckled his seatbelt. It sounded more like a death sentence than a question.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2**__ 1-16-11: alright, I know I have twenty zillion other stories going, but what the hell, let's add one more! Okie dokie doo, this story is all about Mu-Mu Sempai (Mustang). Due to a certain situation I'm not comfortable mentioning, I've decided to write this story to help alleviate my troubles. I'm gonna try to make this an AU story, so there'll be things like iPods, iPhones, laptops, Toyota, Burger King, Wal-Mart, things like that._

_Right, the whole magazine thing... I'm not sure why, but I wanted to make Roy a reporter. Of course, I'll have to think about what to 'translate' Ishval into... maybe just a civil uprising or something..._

_Oh, my DA account is __.com/__. You can see some of my art (I'm getting rid of my website) and a few pics of me. I have a pic of my girl-type Ranma cosplay as well (now that my hair's red it'll be easier to cosplay her/him) so check it out!_

_Alright, I'll tell you. I'm a humongous Ed girl, but lately I've been thinking about Roy much more than is acceptable (I've had dreams about him... we were 'involved' so to speak...) and yeah. I feel so horrible... like I'm cheating on Ed... I was complaining about it on Facebook and saying that I should be punished for being fickle like this all of the sudden, and Shanaynay said I just wanted Ed to spank me. It's not true! I don't want that! I didn't mean be punished like that! =_=' then it got worse when she suggested a threesome..._

_I figured out how to make a text bunny._

(\_/)

( O.o)

c(")_(")

_See? Ain't it adorable? Cissy thinks its fat... the spacing looks wierd because of how the paragraphs are spaced, but you get the general image, right?_

_Ok, the title comes from the names Mustang and Hawkeye. Sort of... you know the term 'horsefeathers' right? Horse = Mustang and Feathers = Hawkeye. Of course, I wanted to do a thing with Jack Sparrow (Pirates fan...) but that wouldn't work as well. Besides, 'horsefeathers' sounds so cool, dontcha think?_

_Until chapter two!_


	2. Installment 2

**Installment 2: The Meal**

"What's this?" Roy inquired a few weeks after the suicide incident.

"It's a box, just take the damn thing," Edward spat. It was nice to see the blond in his usual grumpy mood.

"I'm not retarded, I meant what's inside it," Roy sighed.

"I dunno. I was just told to deliver it since I was on my way here anyway," the blond shrugged and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pants.

"It smells like food. Aw, did you buy me lunch?" Roy teased.

"Don't flatter yourself, womanizer," Edward huffed, pulling out his iPod to, Roy assumed, tune him out until he was dismissed. "Why would I buy you anything?"

"Relax; I'm just messing with you. You don't have to act so uptight all the time."

Roy opened the box and a sweet smell wafted out and filled his nose. It was a fairly large box, perhaps a square foot, and inside was an opaque plastic container. Resting on the top was a folded piece of cream colored paper with an elegant S printed on it. A small outline of a bird was printed in faint grey beneath the S.

"I'm not going to give you any, if that's why you're hanging around," Roy commented.

"I'm waiting to be dismissed, dumbass. I have other things I'd rather be doing than watch you stuff your face. Besides, I already ate mine on the way here," Edward rolled his eyes.

"For Tall, Dark, and Nosy?" Roy read aloud as he opened the card. "I hope you're not allergic to anything in here. If you are, sucks for you."

"That's some love letter. Who'd you piss off?" Edward snickered.

"Beats me. I meet a lot of people," the brunette replied. He narrowed his eyes as Edward coughed the word 'player' and continued to take the container out of the box.

"Ah, I see you finally got it," Riza's voice said smoothly as she breezed into the room. "Don't worry; it won't kill you."

"That's not what the note implies," Roy drawled, waving the card around uselessly. "Who is S anyway?"

"This looks good, Edward. I'll send it in to be edited, but I think we'll be able to publish this without all the pains we normally put people through," Riza smiled, tapping a small stack of paper clipped papers.

"So I can go?" Edward asked more than a bit eagerly.

"Yes, go on, be free. Enjoy your youth! Stay up late, romp through fields of flowers, meet some girls, have fun!" Roy teased.

"I'd only do those things if it'd help punch your face in," Edward spat as he turned to leave.

"Thanks, I love you too," Roy grinned.

"Drop dead, bastard," the blond hissed as the door to the office slammed shut behind him.

"Is there a particular reason you keep picking on him?" Riza inquired nonchalantly as she rifled through the piles of paper on the table.

"Because it's my only source of entertainment during the workweek," Roy replied, lifting the lid of the container. "This... looks gourmet. Where did you buy this?" he asked, pointing at the food arranged on the plate. There was a medium sized fish, the meat sliced and arranged like a fan from the ribs, lemons and oranges cut to resemble flowers, scallops with green sprigs of something that smelled sweet and artfully drizzled yellow and brown sauces resting on a bed of pale yellow rice.

"I didn't buy it," Riza replied curtly.

"Then..."

"Edward didn't buy it either. The only thing bought was the ingredients. It's home-made."

"Tastes like it's from a five-star cruise's best restaurant..." he mumbled as he forked a bite into his mouth. The fish was cooked to what he thought was perfection, since he wasn't a food critic, and tasted absolutely delicious. The scallops were perfect too, the green things providing a sharp flavor he could only describe as green. The yellow sauce was sweet while the brown one was tangy. They blended well together with the rice, which tasted faintly of a sweet herb mixture. He wanted to savor the bite he was thoughtfully chewing, but at the same time wanted to eat more. He thought it was that good. There was no way it could be home-made if it tasted like that.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" a chipper voice announced as the door swung open and banged against the wall. "Smells good in here. Trying out a new cologne?"

"Hey Hughes," Roy mumbled, still shoveling food into his mouth. He remembered that he hadn't eaten since the morning before that one.

"No, it's his lunch. Or, rather, payment," Riza greeted Maes, a slightly over-the-top photographer and good friend of Roy's. The two had gone to college together and became fast friends.

"Payment?" Roy repeated. What did she mean by payment?

"Payment? What'd he do this time?" Maes inquired.

"More like what was done to him," Riza replied, stapling a stack of papers together, marking them with a green Post-It and filing them in a box.

"Sounds interesting. What happened?" Maes asked, turning to Roy for an answer.

"Nothing happened. The most interesting thing that happened recently was..." Roy trailed off as he realized what exactly he was talking about. "Sharlen..."

"Who's Sharlen? Or what?"

"My cousin," Riza answered. "She attempted suicide and hit his car in the process. Saved her life but pissed him off."

"You mean she made improvements on that crappy thing you call a Toyota?" Maes joked.

"It's not crappy," Roy said lamely, avoiding further speech by shoveling more of the delicious food into his mouth. He couldn't get over how well everything went together, even the lemons and oranges.

"Have you seen that thing? Junkyards look nicer," Maes said flatly. "Oops, look at the time! I've got a date with Gracia!"

"Like you do anything else," Roy scoffed.

"I can't argue with that," Maes grinned stupidly before slinking out the door.

"What did he even want?" Roy muttered to his fork.

"You're his friend; shouldn't you know that?" Riza asked. He could pick up hints of amusement in her voice.

"Whatever..." he muttered, gnawing on the utensil in his hand. "So this is Sharlen's form of payment? She cooks for people?"

"She's not half bad. If she'd just stop trying to kill herself, she could become a great chef," Riza chatted. "Make sure you thank her. She went out of her way to make that for you."

"Who are you, my nanny?" he sassed.

"Just do it," she sighed.

"Yes, Mom," Roy teased. Riza threw a stapler at him.

* * *

"Nice Band-Aid," Edward smirked when he opened the door to his dorm at Central Academy.

"Shove it," Roy spat. The stapler Riza had thrown had not only hit him, but left a staple stuck on his forehead.

"What'd you do? Forget to bring a date flowers or something?" the blond sassed.

"Riza threw a stapler at me. Where's Sharlen?"

"What's in it for me?" Edward asked coyly.

"You get to keep your job," Roy said tersely.

"She's taken over the mini kitchen," the blond sighed, opening the door to led Roy inside. "Why, you here to ask her on a date?"

"Don't you have homework or something to do?" Roy sighed angrily.

"Nope. I'm a prodigy, remember? It's all done," Edward replied smugly.

"Amazing!" Alphonse's voice exclaimed from further inside the dorm.

"It looks so professional," a female voice added.

"It's nothing," Sharlen's voice replied flatly.

"Brother, look at this!" Alphonse squealed, running out into the main room and carrying a large cake. "Isn't it amazing?"

The cake was a single layer and covered evenly with chocolate frosting. White frosting was drizzled in thin, swirly lines across the top and formed a starburst around the large strawberry on one end. A few dark green leaves framed the red berry, making it stand out against the dark brown cake. Roy felt his mouth begin to water. He hadn't had cake in a long time...

"Sharlen made this?" Roy inquired.

"Yup! You can tell because she always leaves her signature somewhere on the dish," Winry, a perky blond who had been friends with the brothers for ages, nodded. She pointed to an elegant S written in frosting just to the side of the strawberry.

"It has a name too. Sharlen, what did you call this again?" Alphonse called at the kitchenette.

"Stovetop Chocolate Ensemble," Sharlen replied, wiping her hands on a towel as she joined the others. "Oh, look who's here. Brown-nosing again?"

"Riza made me come thank you for the food you made me," Roy said awkwardly.

"It's nothing. Cooking has always come naturally to me, and baking is no different. Help yourself to the cake if you want," she shrugged, blowing a stray lock of red hair out of her eyes. "I'll clean up the kitchen and be on my way."

"Aw, you're leaving already?" Alphonse pouted.

"Yeah, it's getting late and I still have some packing to do before I can move into my dorm. By the way, thanks for helping me get it set up," she gave a small smile and vanished into the kitchen.

"Wow... I think that's the first time I've seen her smile..." Roy mumbled.

"Sounds like someone's in love," Edward teased.

"Midget," Roy shot back.

"Who are you calling a tiny microscopic pipsqueak?" Edward shrieked.

"He didn't say that, Ed," Winry sighed, gingerly cutting into the cake and sliding a piece onto a plate.

"Play nice, you guys..." Alphonse said wryly. Every time Edward and Roy were together, a fight was soon started. He absently recalled the one time they had gotten into a physical fight... that was bad. There was a lot of damage done to the restaurant and... it was better to just forget about it.

"Hey, Tall, Dark, and Nosy, you drive past Riza's place on your way home, right? Think you could give me a ride?" Sharlen asked as she re-entered the room, pulling on a jacket in the process.

"It's possible..." Roy said around a mouthful of cake. It was too good! The chocolate was neither overpowering nor weak, and the white chocolate went so well with it. And that strawberry... it was no wonder the girl got accepted into Central Academy's culinary program.

"For you," she said curtly, placing a plastic container near Winry. "I put the other leftovers in your fridge. Oh, I also threw out that burnt-to-a-crisp thing that looked like some kind of meat."

"That was pizza..." Edward said with a blush.

"Really? Don't ever cook again," Sharlen replied firmly.

"You leaving now?" Roy asked.

"Wow, you're really nosy today. Yes, when I entered the room putting on my jacket and asking if you could give me a ride, I intended to leave. Is that such a problem?" she retorted.

"But I'm not done eating," Roy protested.

"You know, you are allowed to bring the cake with you," she sighed heavily.

"My car's still trashed because of you," he spat as they walked to the parking lot after bidding everyone goodbye. He licked chocolate frosting off his fingers.

"So?"

"So what's gonna be done about it?" he asked pointedly.

"Go buy a new one. The one you have is pretty sucky already, ain't it?" she replied nonchalantly. "I'm surprised you get dates driving that piece of regurgitated shit."

"You've got quite an attitude," he said stiffly as he unlocked the doors.

"Tell me something I don't know," she replied just as stiffly, sliding into the passenger seat.

"You're an amazing cook?" he tried as he revved the engine and the machine roared to life.

"Another set of hollow words. I've heard that too often to believe it anymore. You'll have to try harder than that," she chuckled dryly.

"Oh... you're one of those girls, aren't you?" Roy asked as they joined the other cars on the road. Sharlen turned her head away and gazed out the window at the darkening landscape of Central City.

"What girls?" she asked lightly.

"The kind who thinks their life is so damn horrible when really all they're doing is wallowing in self pity and exaggerating their pain, acting all innocent and pretending to be hurt so people will like them," he replied sourly.

"Like you know," she scoffed bitterly.

"I really hate girls like you," Roy said. He instantly regretted it; how could he say something so awful to someone he barely knew?

"You don't know a god damn thing!" she snapped suddenly, making him jump.

He quickly steered the car back into the appropriate lane. She had been so quiet all the other times he had seen her... that outburst was certainly unexpected. He felt even worse. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as her hand went to her neck again. Now that he was closer, he could see a long thin scar across her throat. He wondered what happened to give her a scar like that on such a vulnerable place on her body.

"I hate guys like you too, claiming to know everything about a person just because you've talked with them a few times and playing with women like they were toys, to be used and tossed aside. I really despise men like you," she added after a moment's pause.

"Then the feeling's mutual. I'm glad we understand each other," he replied stiffly, pulling up to the curb so she could get out.

"Thank you for the ride," she said awkwardly as she climbed out.

"Thanks for the food. It was really good," he answered in a similar tone.

"I'm glad you liked it. Maybe... if we met again... hypothetically, of course ... I'll cook for you again," she looked at him from beneath her bangs.

"I'd like that, hypothetically," he grinned.

She smiled once, briefly, and walked to the front door of the walk-up Riza lived in.

His smile softened as he drove away, easily navigating the downtown traffic. He wondered why his chest felt funny. Maybe it was all that fancy food he ate today. He had been practically living off fast food and pizza for the past few months, so maybe he just wasn't used to well-balanced meals.

"Maybe that's it..." he muttered to himself.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__1-30-11: woo hoo! Chapter two! Alright, with this series, I'm gonna try to explore my food-loving side (I love food. I'm almost always hungry, so I snack a lot). We've all seen the pictures of fancy dishes in magazines and on TV (Hell's Kitchen is a personal favorite of mine, along with assorted cake shows) and now I'm gonna try to take everything I've ever seen regarding food, mix it up, prettify it, then spit it up here._

_That could've been explained better, but hell. So, if anyone wants to see a certain dish, just tell me and I'll add it! I'll be mostly making the dishes up as I go along, stealing this item from that dish and these two from that one and adding this because it looks pretty when I imagine it, so please bear with me. I'll try to make them sound like real dishes you'd buy in a real restaurant, but the only places I eat out anymore are Taco Bell, Applebee's, BJ's (love their spring rolls, BTW, it's the only thing I'll order there. I don't even need the menu anymore), Great Wall Chinese joint at the Junction and occasionally at BE Wok and Sushi. Oh, and I get Little Caesar's pizza every now and again._

_It seems like a bad idea, writing a story where food is relatively important when my idea of eating out is pizza and Taco Bell (not together, of course)... followed by bowling with friends and a few rounds in the arcade at the casino. Yeah, I don't get out much... speaking of food, I ate Top Ramen a few moments ago. Chicken flavor... it was either that or shrimp flavor, which I have bad memories of. I can't believe I used to eat the stuff raw when I was a kid. You know the drill: stomp on it to crush the noodles and pray the bag doesn't explode, open it and add the flavor powder, shake it up and dig in. Actually, I found a half eaten bag of raw Top Ramen in my room a while ago. It's been there since who knows when (probably elementary school, since I stopped eating it raw when I was in junior high) and I've been to busy (lazy) to throw it away. My room is in desperate need of some serious cleaning..._

_I thought about calling the chapters (you might've noticed that I switched from 'chapter' to 'installment' for this series) 'menu' but that seemed way too much like Mixed Vegetables (by Ayumi Komura) and nothing else seemed to fit. Calling them 'dishes' reminded me of plates and cups and stuff, not food exactly, so that idea went out the window as well... 'Appetizer' was just unappetizing. Maybe 'serving' would work... 'Now serving: 3'... '3 servings'... maybe not... that reminds me of the deli in the grocery store, where you take a number (am I remembering all this stuff right?)_

_So any help with the food would be greatly appreciated! I plan to have at least one dish appear in each chapter, so yeah! Send in requests! (like it's a radio station or something... damn me for being weird...) Green tea and M&M's go well together... I ate that earlier this morning. It made me happy, but I might be getting sick so I'm gonna hafta eat get-well foods soon (two of my friends are sick, and one has the flu) cuz I don't wanna get sick. I was sick a lot last year (there was a time when I couldn't eat anything without feeling like my guts were going to explode and I'd throw up... I called it food poisoning, but I don't know if that's correct or not) and misses school quite a bit. Maybe that's why I'm in danger of having to take summer school to graduate... I could just be a bad student, too. It's not a big deal! Albert Einstein didn't graduate, right? Why should I? That's probably wrong... I know some really smart and famous people didn't graduate from something, but the only name I came up with was Albert Einstein. I don't see how it should matter for a normal person if a famous person isn't criticized about it. And it's not like I'm not graduating, I'll just graduate in July... after summer school... (hopefully)_

_Until next time! More about food in the next one, obviously. It's a food story (I'm getting help from 'Mixed Vegetables') so of course I'm going to talk about food._

_Please write to me about what you like and/or dislike! Feedback is crucial for an artist! I can't keep going on my ideas alone; I need input from an outside source! Review, email, text, something!_


	3. Installment 3

**Installment 3: The Rescue**

"You look like you're about to explode," Edward commented.

"I got food poisoning from fast food once. I'm not too thrilled to be here," Sharlen replied stiffly.

"Me too, but I can't seem to stay away," the blond shrugged.

"Fast food will make you fat and give you diabetes. Haven't you ever watched Supersize Me?" Alphonse said as he took a long drink from his soda.

"Who hasn't?" Winry scoffed.

"Look, just because you like to watch movies three times in a row doesn't mean we all do," Edward snorted.

"You can practically recite half the lines yourself," Alphonse snickered.

"If you gave her a camera, she'd probably try to reproduce the film and post it online," Edward mumbled.

"YouTube!" Alphonse and Winry chorused.

"You guys are so weird," Sharlen laughed to herself.

"That's what you get when you hang out with Tweedledee and Tweedlemidget," Winry pointed out.

"Call me midget one more time, I insist," Edward said tightly.

"Why, so you can yell at me in public?" Winry sassed.

"And they claim not to be in love," Sharlen sighed, leaning back in her seat. Next to her, Alphonse made strange sounds, like he was trying not to laugh.

Edward and Winry looked at one another and scooted away as far as the booth would allow.

"As if!" they said together.

"Some role model you have, Al. Your brother is a terrible, rotten liar," the redhead mumbled.

"Tell me about it! He's always getting into fights and landing in the hospital. Everyone working there knows us by name, and we're friends. That is not a good sign," the younger brother huffed.

"I'm in the hospital a lot too, but I'm not friends with anyone," Sharlen mumbled.

"You're not friends with anyone besides us and Riza," Edward interjected.

"Except..." Winry started.

"Maybe..." Alphonse added.

"Roy Mustang," the three teased.

"Roy Mustang?" Sharlen repeated, her cheeks turning almost as red as her hair. "Now, who is that again? That's a celebrity, right?"

"Aw, she's blushing! She's in love!" Winry squealed.

"Could you not squeal like a rabid fangirl so loudly?" Sharlen asked, tearing her paper napkin into tiny pieces. She tried to hide her face, but the color just wouldn't leave her cheeks.

"It's fine. It looks like he's got the hots for you too," Edward said smugly, chewing on his straw.

"You really think so?" Sharlen asked softly.

"Oh, definitely. Every time I go to work, I get hounded. 'How's Sharlen doing?' 'Is she going to come by anytime soon?' 'Did she cook anything for me?' He's like a little kid at Christmas," the blond nodded.

"You must've made quite an impression on him," Winry commented.

"But she made a bigger one on his car," Edward pointed out.

"Oh, that's true, isn't it?" Winry mumbled.

"Why did you do that in the first place?" Alphonse asked.

"Hit his car? It was in my way; I couldn't do anything about it," Sharlen shrugged.

"No, I meant... why did you try to kill yourself by jumping off a building?" he clarified.

"Oh, you wanna know that. Simple, really, I wanted to die."

"The way you said that, you make it sound like it was just a whim," Edward said pointedly.

"So?"

"Is there a particular reason you wanted to die?" Winry inquired gently.

"Because I learned how horrible people were all over again," Sharlen replied sullenly, absently running a finger over the thin scar on her neck.

"That's where you got that scar, isn't it? Something happened, you got the scar, and you wanted to kill yourself so you jumped off a building," Edward concluded. "It wasn't an accident, was it?"

"No... it wasn't. I lied about that, but I didn't want anyone to know... how could I tell anyone... that my boyfriend tried to kill me?" she asked rhetorically

"Why?" Alphonse asked. "I know you hate when people get nosy, but we might be able to help you if you tell us what happened."

"I refused to sleep with him, that's all. We had been dating for two months, and I had hardly seen him those two months, perhaps one time every two weeks. I was living alone in an apartment near my school, and he came over. I was glad to see him, and we spent the evening watching DVD's. We had finished watching 1408 or whatever it was called, that movie about the haunted hotel room, and I said I was too scared to sleep by myself. he offered to sleep with me and I agreed, thinking it was a joke. I didn't catch on until he tried undressing me. I hit him as hard as I could and ran to my room. After that, it's a bit of a blur. He hit me repeatedly, I lost a lot of blood, I tried to fight back and somehow we ended up in the kitchen. He sliced at me with a cleaver I had left lying around, cutting my arm. I stumbled and fell against the wall, and he sliced at me again. My neck stung and I heard the door open. After that, I woke up in a hospital with lots of bandages around my neck. I had to get stitched to close the wound he had left," Sharlen explained, more thoroughly than the others expected.

"What a bastard," Edward mumbled.

"The doctors said I was lucky to be alive. As far as I could tell, I wasn't lucky enough," she scoffed. "That's why I hate people."

"Suicide isn't the answer. Our mom attempted suicide after our dad ran out on us. Tried overdosing. We came home from school to find her collapsed on the floor and barely conscious. That... was probably the scariest day of my life," Alphonse murmured.

"She succeeded the second time, though. She OD-ed again and landed in the hospital. Doctors mercy-killed her because she had taken so much of the medicine and was dying anyway. They said the mercy-killing would be less painful than the meds she took. I didn't know what else to do, so I let them do what they said was best. I was ten; what could I have done?" Edward mumbled.

"My parents died on call in Ishbal. Some member of a radical faction murdered them," Winry said softly.

"So we're bound by common tragedy. Maybe that's why I get along with you three better than other people. My folks died in a train accident. Well, the train didn't kill them, but they were hurt so bad they couldn't leave the hospital and they died there," Sharlen confirmed.

"Alright kids, I'm closing up shop now, so you better get going. The city's dangerous at night," the manager said.

The four teens wandered away from the Arby's and plodded down the street.

"I'm going this way. I'm staying at Riza's tonight," Sharlen announced, pointing down the street she intended to follow to Riza's apartment.

"Alright, see you at school, then," Winry said with half a smile.

"Be careful!" Alphonse called as they went their separate ways.

"You too!" Sharlen called back.

The streets seemed eerily dark, despite the streetlights. Walking alone at night frightened her. She was always scared that her ex would leap out of the shadows and attack her. She didn't have anything else to do, so she fished her iPod out of her pocket and turned it on, putting on the headphones. The silence was starting to creep her out. The song that had been playing when she turned it off was one of her favorites, so she restarted it.

Everything You Want, by Vertical Horizon, always reminded her of the time she spent with Riza. It had been a popular song back when she was a kid, and she had grown up listening to it. She always remembered a certain memory whenever she heard this song.

_It was a warm morning in spring. She and Riza had been outside playing because Riza's father, a novelist, needed time alone to work. She was busy scribbling something that was supposed to be a flower on the stepping stones of the backyard with chalk when Riza suddenly stood up. A group of boys, close to Riza in age, were climbing over the backyard fence. There was one with glasses and one with messy black hair, along with a... not fat, exactly, but maybe pudgy... one with orange hair and another with curly blond hair that was taller than the rest._

_"Get moving! It's coming!" carrot-top urged, pushing the one with black hair over the edge of the fence. He landed, with a cry, on the ground. The others landed on top of him._

_"Ew, it's Riza," the one with glasses sneered._

_"Gross, a girl," carrot-top added, sticking out his tongue._

_"Not you again. Can't you find someone else's backyard to trash?" Riza sighed._

_"Hey, who's the shrimp?" glasses asked, leaning to the side to get a better look._

_"My cousin, Charlene," Riza replied stiffly. A dog barked loudly and the four boys jolted in fear._

_"I'm leaving! I don't want to be dog food!" the blond wailed, charging for the other end of the yard and scrambling up the fence. "Good fight-or-flight skills have been in my family forever!"_

_Sharlen stood up and wobbled over to Riza, scared of the boys._

_"So you were the landing pad again, huh?" Riza asked when the others had left._

_"I always am..." the one with messy hair, who had been squished under the others, mumbled as he got to his knees._

_"You okay?" Sharlen asked. "You hurt somewhere?"_

_"Huh? Uh... no, I'm alright," the boy replied._

_"Sure 'bout that?" she asked. The boy's face was scraped up and covered in dirt._

_"Yeah, I'm fine," he nodded._

_"Okay, you say so," she shrugged._

_"Riza! Would you come here for a minute?" Riza's father called from inside the house._

_"Stay here and keep an eye on her, okay?" Riza instructed._

_"Uh..." the boy mumbled as Riza went back inside. "Great, now I'm a babysitter."_

_"You mad? Charlene do something wrong?" Sharlen asked timidly._

_"I'm mad, but not at you. You didn't do anything wrong," he assured her. "How old are you?"_

_"Four of me!" she exclaimed, holding up her fingers to show him. He smiled and laughed, something she liked very much. She smiled too._

_"Hey, come on already!" the boy with glasses whined, popping up over the edge of the fence again. "What are you doing?"_

_"None of your business! Get lost!" the boy snapped._

_"He's playing with the shrimp, how adorable!" glasses taunted as he climbed over the fence again, followed by the other two boys._

_"Is she your girlfriend?" carrot-top sneered._

_"No way. She's only... like... four," the boy replied stiffly._

_"Cradle-robber!" glasses cried._

_"Why don't you chase women your own age?" the blond one asked, grabbing Sharlen by her shoulders and spinning her around to look at her. "She's too pretty for you anyway."_

_"Really? Let me see her," glasses snickered. The blond pushed her towards glasses. She stumbled and fell to the ground._

_"Leave her alone," the boy said firmly, wiping dirt off his face as he moved in front of Sharlen. She watched, her eyes filling with tears, as the other boys crowded around the two._

_"Aw, he loves her!" carrot-top teased._

_"Hey, you punk kids! Get out of my yard!" Riza's father barked. Something struck the ground in front of carrot-top and the three boys scrambled for the fence._

_"It's alright," the boy said comfortingly, bending down to wipe tears off Sharlen's face. "Tell you what: if you ever need help, come and find me, okay? I'll protect you."_

"Look who's here," a familiar voice said smugly.

Sharlen froze where she stood. She knew that voice too well, far too well. She wanted to run, as far and as fast as she possibly could, but her legs wouldn't move.

"Gregory..." she mumbled as the owner of the voice sauntered into view, the fur of his vest gleaming in the streetlight.

"My name's Greed now, Sharlen. At least, that's what my friends call me," Greed laughed haughtily.

Sharlen shivered. "What do you want?"

"I want what I was supposed to get, but couldn't have because you had to be such a prude," he snorted.

"I already told you, I thought you were joking," she sighed.

"But you still agreed. that means I should still get what you offered to me!" he snapped.

He grabbing her collar and slammed her into the wall. He kissed her, more to silence her screams than as a romantic act. She screamed as best as she could, but didn't accomplish much with her mouth covered. Greed grabbed both her wrists in one hand and pinned them behind her back. He ground his hips against her, sliding his free hand up her skirt. She wished that she had changed after school got out that afternoon before heading out with her friends. Then she might've had a sliver of a chance at escaping. Pants were harder to remove for sex than a skirt was, and she often wore belts, so while Greed wasted his time trying to unbuckle her belt she could've kicked him at least. But right now she was too scared to even think.

She thought of the boy who had saved her from the bullies when she was four. She did not remember his name, and his image was fading too. The only thing that was still sharp in her fading memory was his voice.

_"If you ever need any help, come find me. I'll protect you."_

She wrenched her mouth free and screamed, piercingly, for all she was worth.

Roy jolted when a shrill shriek pierced the stillness of the night. It was very loud, if it could be heard over the grumbling of his car's engine. Another came, followed by something that sounded like 'Help me!' Annoyed that some idiot was stupid enough to do whatever he was doing, he pulled up to the curb and got out of his car.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that sounded kind of like Sharlen..." he mumbled to himself as he set out to investigate.

"You put up more of a fight than I thought you would," Greed sneered. "I am sorry I had to hit you, but you really did ask for it. You're still a prude, you know that?"

Sharlen didn't reply. The flavor of blood was sharp on her tongue from when he hit her. The blow had knocked her back with such force she had struck her head against the wall. She could feel blood trickling down her neck. Her hair covered her eyes so she couldn't see... but maybe that was a good thing. If anything, she didn't want to see herself get raped by her greedy ex.

"Hey, what the..." Greed started. His voice was cut off and she heard him grunt in pain. Something heavy and large landed against the Dumpster nearby, making carelessly tossed trash bags rustle angrily.

She felt someone touch her, and panic rose inside her. She tried to get away, to push the person touching her away. Her head ached and she couldn't see, so this wasn't very effective.

"Easy, easy, it's me," Roy's voice said gently, carefully grabbing her wrist. "It's me."

"T-Tall, Dark and... Nosy," she said, confirming that she knew who it was.

"Can you stand up?" he asked.

She nodded and sat up slowly, her head swimming in pain. With Roy's help, she got to her feel. The world seemed to tilt and she wobbled. One hand let go of her wrist to steady her, wrapping around her shoulders. She took a step forward, and the world pitched and reeled again. She saw the ground coming closer, then shrink. A strong arm, warm and supportive, slid under her legs where her knees bent and she was lifted off the ground. She could feel the rise and fall of Roy's chest as he breathed, and the warmth too.

"My place is close by, so we'll go there and get you cleaned up, okay?" he asked, making sure he wouldn't drop her. She nodded weakly and allowed herself to be carried to his car.

_"How old are you?"_ the boy in her memory asked.

"Four of me..." she mumbled as she was strapped into the front seat.

"Four of you?" Roy repeated. "Huh. Reminds me of... no, that couldn't be..." he said, shaking his head. Still, some part of him wished it was true.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__2-5-11: no fancy dishes in this one because number one: I put two in the last chapter, and number two: this was more of a build-up chapter. I explained Sharlen's past (I love writing about peoples' pasts!) but tried not to put too much detail into it. That, and I needed a reason for her to explain things to Mustang, who, if you didn't notice, is the leading male character this time around._

_This is kinda strange for me, because I usually pair him up with an OC, but I'm kinda leaning towards and EdxWin relationship. At least, the implication is there. Who should Al end up with? I was kinda thinking Rose... but maybe Sheska? His down-to-earth attitude with her ADHD zaniness... it might work. Tell me what you think._

_I just ate some coconut M&M's. They were sooo good! Now, I'm gonna hafta wait a while so I can drink my Nitrous Monster (I don't want to explode or something, you know?)_

_I did something out of the ordinary for me earlier today: I painted my nails. Normally I can't sit still long enough for the polish to dry, but since I was gonna write a lot today, I decided to go for it. I get weird if I'm not drawing, so I usually end up either scraping the dry polish off on the paper when I erase the pencil marks or scraping the still-drying polish so I can do things. I learn better by moving my hands (hands-on projects and the like) so I get fidgety if I can't use my hands to do what I'm good at. I think that's called kinesthetic learning... I remember learning about that in the fourth grade but now (when I'm in 12th grade) I don't really remember._

_So if I can't draw or write, I get twitchy. I'll start twitching a little and sometimes start drawing with an invisible pen or something. I'll move my hands like I'm drawing on the surface of a desk or something, you know? I'm pretty strange..._

_I noticed that I'm kinda similar to Haine today (from The Gentleman's Alliance Cross). She calls herself naive and Ushio says she's just honest. My mom says I'm honest, so I've got something in common with Haine! Maybe the one-sided love? Only for Ed and Roy, not Shizumasa and (I'm assuming you all know about this, so sorry if it's a spoiler) Tanakari. They can kiss my ass; I don't like them. I adore Kusame and Maguri... I'd love to have Maora as a friend._

_Um... a good dish... is toast and hot chocolate. (Since this is about food, I figured I might as well...) It sounds weird but tastes really good. My mom makes it for me and my brother every Christmas we spend with her (the custodial arrangement worked out between my parents is strange, at least from my perspective) and I've started eating it when it isn't Christmas. She made me try graham crackers and milk one time. I hate graham crackers (I hate writing that word too, I always spell it wrong) and I hate milk, like Ed, so of course I hated graham cracker dipped in milk. Disgusting, really... apples and cheddar cheese is really good, though. But I love Arby's, so I put one in here. It's an AU fic anyway, why not? I'm not a big fan of fast food (particularly hamburgers and hotdogs) but I love getting a roast beef sandwich from Arby's. It's gonna be so hard for me when I finally do go vegetarian (I'm waiting until I'm living on my own, so people aren't breathing down my neck about my eating habits. I can't sit down and eat a full meal without feeling like I'll puke sooner or later, but if left alone I'll snack _**all the time**_ and people are so finicky about my eating habits... just because I'm losing weight doesn't make me bulimic or anorexic or something! It's these diet Hot Pocket things my mom buys [because they're cheaper] and I eat all the time! Really!) And, I get a little weird when I walk down the meat aisle (it's muscle, for crying out loud! Like cutting off someone's arm and cooking it kind of muscle! So gross!)... I'm going vegetarian because I hate plants, not because I love animals._

_Until next time, where Sharlen makes all sorts of cookies... because we need something to lure people to the dark side with. "Come to the dark side, we have cookies." Gotta rep, y'know?_


	4. Installment 4

**Installment 4: The Sleepover**

"Looks like the bleeding stopped," Roy mumbled, brushing Sharlen's bangs out of her face. She blinked with what looked like great effort and sighed. He had insisted on washing her clothes, which had been stained with mud and blood and dirt, so she wore one of his shirts and a pair of pajama pants that were far too long and bunched up around her feet.

"This... is the second time," she mumbled, closing her eyes against the throbbing pain in her head. Why did he keep saving her? Did he really care that much about her? ...or was he just trying to earn brownie points?

"Second time for what?" he asked. "This will sting a bit," he warned, pressing a cloth damp with rubbing alcohol against the cut on her forehead. She sucked in breath sharply and tried to back away.

"You saved me twice now," she explained.

"Were you trying to die this time too?" he asked, his voice heavy.

"No... my ex jumped me... and... and he... he... t-tried to..." she broke off, tears filling her eyes.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had pulled her into a hug. She sobbed into his shirt, her shoulders heaving. He held her and let her cry, feeling really stupid and perhaps a bit useless. Could he have put himself in a more awkward position? Yes, actually... he could've done something really crazy like... kiss her or something. He felt her arms move slightly, tightening their grip. They were so skinny... he wondered how they didn't snap in half.

"You remind me of a girl I met when I was little, shortly after I moved to town," he chattered as her sobs quieted into hiccups. "She had hair the same color as yours. My friends and I had teased a large dog and it got angry with us and chased us. We climbed the fence into someone's backyard. There were two girls playing there. The redhead and one with blond hair, who I had seen at school and talked to once or twice. The blond yelled at us and my friends left me behind in their escape of the dog, which just went around the house and continued the chase. For some reason or another, she told me to keep an eye over the little girl while she took care of something inside her house. The girl and I talked a bit. She looked scared of me at first, but asked if I was hurt. I didn't ask her name, but asked how old she was. She replied 'Four of me!' I couldn't help smiling; her reply was so cute. But my friends came back to get me, and they mocked me about being left alone with the little girl and tried to tease us by bullying her."

"What did you do?" Sharlen asked softly, dragging a hand across her cheeks.

"I stood up for her, of course. Eventually, my friends left. She was crying, so I did my best to comfort her, like I'm doing with you now," he answered.

"That's funny. I remember something similar... a boy with messy black hair protecting me from bullies when I was four. I think about him a lot. He was a lot older than me, and I don't know what happened to him. I only saw him that once and I didn't know his name. I resolved... that if I ever met him again, by some freak happenstance or miracle, that I would thank him for what he did," Sharlen said softly, backing away a bit so she could look up at Roy.

"I saw the girl only once after that. I can't remember her name now, but I remember her red hair. I don't know what happened to her either. Sometimes I can't help wondering what happened to her. I said to her... I don't know why, but I did... that if she ever needed my help, I'd..."

"Come protect her," Sharlen said with him.

"What?" Roy whispered, questioning the notion that was beginning to form in his mind rather than what she had said.

Sharlen pushed him away and looked at him. Really looked at him, saw him. On impulse, she reached up and messed up his hair. She backed away to look at him. Fresh tears filled her eyes, and she pressed a hand to her mouth.

"Oh my god..." Roy mumbled. "You... you can't be..."

"R-Roy... I think I'm the little girl you remember," Sharlen said, her voice barely a whisper. Her knees went weak and she slumped on the floor.

"But... that was thirteen years ago. I was twelve when that happened... Sharlen, how old are you?" he demanded. He secretly was pleased that she had, for once, called him by his name. It wasn't that he didn't like being called Tall, Dark and Nosy (few people gave him nicknames) but it was such a mouthful sometimes. That meant, probably, they were growing closer.

"Seventeen... seventeen of me," she replied softly.

He watched as new tears rolled down her cheeks, making her brown eyes shine like molten chocolate. In his mind, the resemblance was uncanny; there was no doubt now that she was the little girl he remembered. Her hair... and those brown eyes glistening with tears. Sitting on the ground like that, she looked almost exactly as she had all those years ago.

"You kept your word..." he heard her mumble, her voice muffled by her hand.

"I told you I'd protect you, didn't I?" he asked, smiling.

"Yes," she replied, a smile of her own breaking out across her face.

Before he could take even one step forward, she launched herself at him, flinging her arms around his torso. She was crying again, but he wasn't sure if the sounds she made were sobs or laughs. Either way, he found himself smiling.

* * *

"So... I filled Riza in on the... situation," Roy said about half an hour later.

"What did she say?" Sharlen asked softly. She was lying on the couch, staring blankly at the TV screen. She had almost passed out from the pain in her head (because she cried so hard) but refused to go to a hospital.

"She said if I did anything, she'd personally slaughter me," he answered grimly.

"That sounds like something she'd say," she chuckled wryly.

"How's your head?" he asked, folding his arms and resting them on the back of the couch.

"I feel better after lying down," she replied with a small smile. The more she did that, the more he wanted to smile himself. "You look like you did back then when you smile like that."

"I do?" he asked self consciously, pressing a hand to his face, perhaps to try to hide his embarrassment.

"It looks better than the forced smiles I've seen you give the never-ending parade of women," she snorted.

"A 'never-ending parade' is it? Well, I've had worse insults," he smirked.

"Ed says you're a washed-up, egotistical womanizer with a god complex."

"I could care less what a pipsqueak like him thinks of me," he sniffed.

"If I had known that boy was you, I would never let it come to this," she said after a few minutes of silence.

"Come again?" Roy asked.

"You said you wondered what happened to that little girl... to me. Now you know. I didn't want anyone to see this side of me... especially not you," she said, covering her eyes with her arm.

"You mean... the suicide attempt?"

She nodded, almost imperceptibly. "I bet you never thought something like that would happen... that the girl you said you would protect would put herself in danger like that..."

"But I got to see you again. Your moment of weakness brought us back together," he replied, hoping he didn't sound as cheesy as he thought he did.

"But you still saw my weakness. Never let them see you sweat, you know?" she mumbled softly. "People... want the people they care about to think the best of them. I'm not four anymore. I can take care of myself, mostly. I... don't want you to think I'm weak..." she sounded like she might start crying again.

"You're not weak, you're just human. Perfect people have no regrets or worries or weakness, and that makes them boring people. I think you're fine just the way you are," Roy said. Cheering people up wasn't something he was particularly good at. He wondered if he sounded like a sappy romance novel. "Shar..." he stopped when he saw that she had fallen asleep.

Without giving it much thought, he picked her up and carried her to his bedroom, laying her on the bed and covering her with the sheets. He smoothed her bangs out of her face, absently fingering the bandage he carefully placed over her cut. He sat there and watched her for a moment or two. The world sure worked in strange ways, didn't it? Just when he had been about to give up on ever seeing that little girl again, he found her. He saved her again. He wondered why she had tried to kill herself. How much pain had she been in, to want to end everything?

He absently... almost blankly... wondered if he could make her stop hurting.

* * *

A rich chocolate scent wafted in the room, waking Roy out of a dazed half-asleep state. He blinked once, twice, and rubbed his eyes. He must've dozed off last night after putting Sharlen to bed. His back was stiff and ached when he stood up. That was what he got for sleeping hunched over the bed, he supposed.

"Die, die, die, die! No, not me!" Sharlen's voice wailed.

"What are you doing?" Roy asked, trying to stifle a yawn as he staggered out into the living room.

"Failing epically at Brawl," she sighed, pointing her Wii remote at the screen as the winner and stats were displayed. "I had nothing to do while the cookies baked, so I decided to play Brawl. I supposed you had data saved for all your Final Fantasy and didn't want to mess with it, so Brawl seemed like a safe game to play."

"I see you passed up the PS2," he noted.

"You need more games," she snorted. "Ever hear of DDR? Hell, even Mario Kart Wii would be better. Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda, Cooking Mama, that Raving Rabids game, have you never been to a Gamestop?"

"Once in a blue moon," he scoffed.

"Cookies are done!" she announced when the timer went off. She climbed over the couch and hurried to the kitchen. Having nothing else to do, he followed her. "They're hot, so don't touch them yet."

"They look awfully gooey," he commented. "Are you sure you cooked them properly?"

"Please, I've been making cocoa drop cookies for years. They're my specialty," she said smugly.

"Were you just... like, born cooking?" he asked stupidly.

"Yes, " she replied sarcastically. "I came out wearing oven mitts and an apron and carrying a tray of cupcakes and a bag of frosting."

He rolled his eyes at her response.

"I had to have some sort of hobby. I'm not good at painting or sculpting or writing... I can't run fast or fight well or throw far or dance gracefully... I'm not very smart and I'm totally computer retarded. But I was always good at cooking and baking. I wanted to be known for my cooking," she said a moment later.

"Isn't that what happened?" he asked.

"Yeah, but they didn't care about me. People just liked the food I made because they were too lazy to cook for themselves. My aunt used me as a personal chef, Greg... Greed whatever the hell his name is... did too. I still can't believe that I used to like that bastard," she mused, resting her arms on the table and her chin in her hand.

"Ex-boyfriend?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"That's who was... last night," he said awkwardly.

"We watched a scary movie together one night. I made a lame joke about not being able to sleep by myself. He offered to sleep with me. I thought it was a joke, but he didn't. I refused to let him sleep with me and he tried to rape me. That's how I got this scar," she said, tilting her head back so he had a clear view of the thin line across her throat. "I went to the hospital and got stitches, the doctors said I was lucky to be alive. I hated it, knowing that I was just a weak little girl. I hadn't grown up at all from that time we first met. I made me angry at myself, that I still needed someone to protect me. I'm not sure why, but I thought you'd be disappointed in me, and I knew that if I ever saw you again, you'd know about these ugly feelings inside me. I didn't want that to happen, so I tried to get rid of those feelings, permanently. It kinda backfired, though," she chuckled dryly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"So that's why you jumped off that building," he mumbled more to himself than to her.

"I'm sorry I said you ruined my death. I know you were trying to save me," she muttered.

"Of course I saved you. I didn't know who you were until last night, but I couldn't just let you die," he replied matter-of-factly.

"It's hard for me to understand people caring about me. You'll have to forgive me if I seem rude or snotty sometimes. My aunt, who I'd been living with after leaving Riza's dad's place, died when I was thirteen. She was always busy with work so I was alone a lot. I guess I kinda got alienated from the rest of society. I lived alone, and met Greed and we dated. He attacked me shortly after, two months after we started dating. I moved north, far away from anyone I knew. One of my teachers discovered my talent for cooking and I got accepted into the culinary program at Central Academy... and now I'm here," she finished lamely.

"Don't you have school today?" he asked.

"I called in sick. I didn't feel like going," she replied, tapping her bandaged head.

"Uh... he didn't actually... uh..." Roy paused, unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to ask.

"N-no... I mean, he touched me... where... but he didn't actually... y'know..." she stammered, equally unsure.

"Th-that's good, then," he replied.

"Yup..." she agreed. "Um... you want some coffee or something?"

"Sure."

"The cookies are probably cool enough to eat," she said, standing up to fix the drink.

"Hey, these are really good," he said after biting into one. They were soft and mushy and a little bit warm. The chocolate melted in his mouth, interlaced with the taste of something else he just couldn't name.

"Try to guess the secret ingredient," she said teasingly.

"Vanilla?" he asked. "No, that can't be it... it's not tangy so it can't be citrus... not spicy like cinnamon..."

"Cottage cheese," she smirked.

Roy looked at the cookie in his hand and then at Sharlen. He looked back and forth between the two for a few minutes before finally saying, "No."

"Yep," she grinned.

"No. There is no way you put _cottage cheese_ in a cookie. Cheese and chocolate don't mix like that. No," he denied.

"Here's the recipe," she said, holding out a worn scrap of paper.

"It doesn't taste like cottage cheese at all..." he mumbled, quickly reading over the paper. It was at the top of the list.

"That's just how good I am," she said smugly.

"Bragging doesn't suit you," he teased.

"Imprints of wrinkled fabric on your cheek don't suit you," she retorted.

"So what are you gonna do since you're not going to school?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Uh... I thought maybe I could hang out here... with you... because it's been so long since I saw you and now that I know who you are I wanted to..." she trailed off, her cheeks turning light pink. "Get to know you better," she finished lamely.

"All seventeen of you?" he asked playfully.

"Yes, all seventeen of me," she replied, smiling.

They spent the day doing nothing in particular. Roy called in sick for work, claiming he had the twenty-four hour flu. Surprisingly, no one complained. Riza didn't even nag him, which was even more surprising. They played Brawl a lot, with Roy winning each time, and watched TV. Sharlen made more cookies, since the ones she made earlier had all been eaten. Roy asked what was in the new batch, and she replied it was a mix of chocolate chip and oatmeal with cinnamon and honey. They watched a couple of movies and Sharlen dozed off again.

"You're even prettier than you were before," Roy whispered when he was sure she was sleeping deeply. "And I still really like you."

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__2-6-11: Ah, fluff! You gotta love it! I kept grinning while I wrote this chapter..._

_I'm kinda stealing things from the relationship Mitsuki has/had with Eichi. For those of you who haven't read or heard of Full Moon O Sagashite, it's about a girl named Mitsuki (who I hate, actually) who is in love with this boy named Eichi who was kind to her in the orphanage they grew up in. She tries to get closer to her dream of being a singer, with the help of some friendly shinigami, in hopes of meeting Eichi and... that's all I can say, really, without spoiling it. I hate Mitsuki (I just think she's annoying... her voice in the anime is annoying too, in the English version anyway. myco, the Japanese seiyu, isn't annoying, but the English voice actor is). But I do like the relationship she has with Eichi and wanted to do something like that in one of my stories._

_The title for this installment is kinda cheesy, but it works because Sharlen ended up staying over at Roy's place (no, they didn't sleep together; get your minds out of the gutter). Brawl seemed like the sort of video game Roy would play, so I put it in here. He also strikes me as, for some reason, an RPG guy, so I gave him some Final Fantasy and stuff._

_The only character I can play well with on Brawl is Princess Peach (I can play her well on Melee too) but I wanna get better at using Link. I did do a really cool thing one time at my friends house: I just totally whacked my brother's character (my mom made him come with me) with the frying pan. He just ran over to me and I whacked him, perfectly! She recorded and saved that part, so I can watch my momentary epicness (I'm a terrible player; I almost always lose) over and over. But Link is awesome. I can see Ed cosplaying as Link... he'd just tuck his braid inside the hat. Winry can be Navi (annoying little bugger...) Alphonse can be... Epona. Or something. I hated having to cut the grass in the game... that was really lame... I have a Twilight Princess 's one of my favorite hats, even though I can only wear baseball caps backwards. It's just how my face is, I suppose... I can pull off fedoras and military-style hats, though (the kinda square-ish ones that are like rectangular baseball caps) That's what my mom called them, military-style. I do like my hats... Shanaynay told me that, before we were friends, she liked my hats. I have a lot of hats. Not a lot, but quite a few. I don't think I've had a character wear a hat yet, in my stories... let me know if I have or not, because if I haven't, I wanna make a hat-wearing character._

_Cocoa drop cookies are something my mom makes once in a while. They're really soft and gooey, even days after being taken out of the oven. The weirdest thing is: they hae cottage cheese in them. She says it was because her mom couldn't figure out how to make the kids eat healthy stuff or something like that... they're my favorite cookie, next to those puffy sugar cookies you buy at the grocery store, you know, with the frosting and sprinkles and when you bite into them, they're all _moosh_ in your mouth._

_I'm not going to make this story painstakingly long like my other ones. Ten or twelve chapters, maybe, is my goal. Fifteen at the most. Like if it was a manga, it'd be only two or three volumes long. Something you could finish within a day (or few hours, depending on how fast you read) compared to my longer stories (Godsend, for example). Things might be kinda rushed, though. Time jumps can range anywhere from an hour to several weeks, just FYI._

_Umm... theme songs for this story include Stolen by Dashboard Confessional, Almost Perfect by Ingram Hill, What's Left of Me by Nick Lachey (yeah, you read that right), Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon, and Every Moment by Jet Black Stare. Songs that are kinda cheesy and sad, but good for a romance story._

_Roy's twenty-five in this story, in case you're terrible at math like me. It took me, like, five mintues to get the years right when I was typing the part when he said 'that was thirteen years ago' because I didn't want to make him too young, but I didn't want to make him too old either. I tried to keep the ages the same as they are in the anime/manga. But they don't really say how old Roy is... I know that Hughes in 29 because of the gravestone in the anime... so Roy can't be that much older than him... which means he's young... I'm getting confused again... Roy's 25._

_So Ed and Al are teenagers, and Roy's in his twenties. Of course, the relationship between Sharlen and Roy is slightly strained because she's seventeen (if they do anything, Roy could be accused of being a pedophile! Underage romance... how scandalous...)._

_Note the recurring themes from Rin (suicide, rape). Those might show up often._

_Oh, sorry if I F-ed up the recipie you sent me. I couldn't remember all of it (but I was buzzed on sugar and caffiene...) that and it's one-thirty in the morning as I finish this chapter..._

_Until next time! Please leave a review (I stopped begging, but only two people review consistently lately. Is my writing bad? Thanks, you guys. You know who you are.) please. For Roy, if not for me. He needs them._


	5. Installment 5

**Installment 5: The Secret**

"You look happy," Winry said in a sing-song voice.

"I do?" Sharlen asked stupidly, pressing a hand to her face.

"What happened?" Alphonse asked.

"Nothing?" she offered. "Nothing happened."

"Must've been some weekend at Riza's place," Edward snickered.

"Ah... if you say so..." Sharlen mumbled, holding her schoolbag in front of her face.

Was it that obvious? She had done her best to appear gloomy and estranged like usual, but she couldn't help feeling happy. How could she not, after all? She had seen her... savior, though it sounded horribly cliché... again. She wondered why she didn't notice it earlier. Roy was almost the spitting image of the boy from her memory. He was older, obviously, and his voice was deeper, but he looked almost exactly the same as he had when he was a kid.

"You're smiling like some kind of idiot," Edward pointed out.

"What happened over the weekend?" Alphonse asked, trying to hide a grin but failing.

"I... uh..." the redhead stammered.

"Looks like someone's in love," Winry sang. "I wonder who the lucky guy could be?"

"N-none of your business!" Sharlen snapped, turning on her heel and running down the hall.

She ran into the nearest girl's bathroom and threw her bag on the counter. Some underclassmen girls, evidenced by the difference in ribbon (freshmen had one stripe, sophomores had two, juniors had three and seniors had four, and it was the same for boys' ties) hurried away, giggling like mad. Sharlen hated when girls did that. Of course, being a girl, she did that too. But only... for some reason... around Roy. She felt absolutely ridiculous around him and started acting like those foolish, love struck young girls shown far too often on TV and in movies. The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the next class. She fished her cell phone out of her bag and punched in the only number she knew by heart, apart from Riza's house number.

"Yeah?" Roy's voice asked. He sounded busy, and she instantly felt bad for calling him in the middle of the day like that.

"I can't do it," she said weakly. "I'm sorry... I just can't do it..."

"Sharlen? What's wrong?" he asked.

"I know... you asked me to keep it a secret, but they know something's up," she mumbled.

"Ha-hang on," he said briskly. She heard a chair scraping the floor and several doors opening and closing. "Okay, I can talk now. What do you mean they know something's up?"

"It's Ed and Al and Winry... they keep teasing me, saying I'm in love and other stupid stuff. If they keep it up, I might..." she trailed off, leaning heavily against the wall.

"Sharlen, listen to me; I asked you to keep it a secret because there could be trouble if it gets found out. Riza knows, but she can keep a secret. If anyone else finds out you spent the night, things could get out of hand," he sighed heavily.

"Because you're so much older than me, I know. I know that, but they'll keep pestering me..." she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I asked you to keep that... our relationship... a secret because I want to protect you. It was fine when we were kids, but..." he stopped and sighed again.

"It's alright. I understand. You... could get arrested, right? And I could get kicked out of school. I know... I'm sorry I called you at work. You sounded like you were busy."

"Nah, it was nothing important," he chuckled.

"Alright. I'll see you later, I guess," she said. She felt better, now that she had talked to him.

"Don't let it get to you. If Ed keeps bothering you, just call him short," Roy laughed.

"Yeah. I better go; I'm late for class," she said before hanging up.

"You better be careful," Riza said nonchalantly.

"How long have you been there?" he asked, bending down to pick up his phone. He hoped she didn't see him jump like some kind of retard.

"Long enough. I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner, really," the blond commented.

"That's what I keep telling myself..." he replied lamely.

He put his phone back in his pocket and leaned against the wall. If he wasn't careful, this could get very messy.

"I can't believe Sharlen is that little girl. She... changed, somehow. I remember her being cheerful and sweet... so why did she turn sour and bitter? Now I'm really glad I saved her, but..." he rambled, running a hand through his hair.

"She was alone a lot after her parents died. When someone is alone that much, they have a hard time understanding that people care about them," Riza said gently.

"She knows you care," he said lamely.

"Because I took care of her. My dad spent most of his time writing and she was four, so I took practically raised her until she was seven, when her aunt came and got her," she replied.

"Come to think of it, I never really saw her much after that first day. She lived with you for three years, right?"

"I'm sure you saw her. You just don't remember very well, that's all," she said with a smile.

"It was thirteen years ago; of course I can't remember," he snorted.

Actually, he did remember. Now that it had been brought to his attention, he did remember seeing the redhead a lot. Mostly at school, always hanging in the background, never interacting with others and even avoiding Riza. It wasn't often he saw her, though. Just once in a while when their classes happened to be passing one another.

"You remember?" she asked coyly.

"You're making me feel stupid," he mumbled, sliding to the ground and hugging his knees.

"Love often makes people feel stupid," she said, trying not to laugh.

"What the hell does love have to do with anything?" he screeched, his voice shooting through two octaves.

"Well, really, why else would you be thinking about a little girl you met thirteen years ago now, when you're in your twenties?" she asked matter-of-factly.

"Because... because..." he floundered, heat rising to his cheeks. "I told her I'd protect her."

"You'd say something like that to just anyone, then?" she inquired innocently.

"I can't love her; I barely know her!" he wailed, clamping his hands around his head.

"So you say. Haven't you heard of love at first sight?" she asked playfully.

"Of course I have. That's just a romance novel piece of bullshit," he snorted.

"No it isn't. Someone had to have fallen in love at first sight, to put it in a novel. You're a writer, shouldn't you know that?" she said, joining him on the ground.

"I'm a reporter, not a novelist," he said firmly, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He had been trying to quit, but right now he could really use one. He had to do something to prevent him from saying anything stupid. He was behind the building; no one would complain about the smoke out here.

"Hey, I thought you quit," she stated.

"I tried," he corrected.

"Maybe you should try harder. Those things can kill you," she sniffed.

"Tell that to Havoc," he chortled.

"You know that I'm putting her in your care by letting this happen, right?" Riza said firmly.

"Like before?" he asked.

"Yes, like before. She won't say it, but she really does like you," she nodded.

"Oh, is that so?" Roy asked, feigning nonchalance.

"You've got a new job, by the way. Bradley wants you to write about that new restaurant opening up uptown. Grand opening is next week, but he wants you to drop by now to arrange times for interviews with the owner and manager," she said, pulling out her phone to check the time.

"Now?" he asked, hanging his head.

"Sometime today. Don't do anything stupid," she waved and went back inside.

"Hey, Roy!" Maes exclaimed as Roy finished his cigarette. "Hey, I thought you quit."

"I tried," he replied tightly. "What do you want?"

"I just got a new job! Boss-man himself said I get to take pictures of that new restaurant opening uptown," Maes said smugly.

"Good, then you can give me a ride," Roy smirked.

"Can't you drive yourself?" Maes asked.

"My car's getting fixed," Roy replied.

"Just now?"

"I needed money to fix my car. I had to work to get the money. For me, that meant putting in more hours. Is this making sense?" Roy asked sarcastically.

"Are we gonna leave or are you just gonna stand there all afternoon?" Maes asked, gesturing at his car.

Roy rolled his eyes and slid into the front seat. Maes took the drivers seat and turned the car on. He tossed his iPod to Roy, who plugged it in. They had driven together often enough to know their routine. Whoever wasn't driving was in charge of music and the driver's cell phone.

"Text from Gracia: 'Big news, dinner tonight at Olive Garden, 7:30.' That's all she wrote," Roy announced.

"Big news? I wonder what it could be," Maes giggled stupidly to himself and clapping his hands.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" Roy barked, reaching for the steering wheel. He flinched when his own cell went off.

"Ooh, who's got that ringtone?" Maes asked. "Really, Roy? White and Nerdy?"

"Shut up," he snapped, pulling out his iPhone. He felt a smile tug at his lips and forced himself to keep a straight face.

"You are allowed to smile. There isn't a rule that says you can't," Maes commented after watching Roy's expression for a few minutes. "What's it say?"

"That fast food is going to make me fat and ugly, so I'm being treated to dinner tonight," Roy said smugly.

"Another woman?" Maes asked, shaking his head.

"Something like that," Roy grinned.

"Get out," Maes rolled his eyes as he parked the car.

"Welcome to Ducourte," a young woman with tan skin and pink bangs greeted them when they walked in the door. "Can I help you? Oh... you must be the reporter and photographer, Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes, right?"

"That's us," Maes nodded.

"I'm Rose Thomas, it's a pleasure to meet you. Feel free to sit anywhere. I'll let the owner and manager know you're here," Rose smiled and gestured at the restaurant.

"She seems like a nice kid," Maes noted.

"They all do, at first sight," Roy snorted.

"Gentlemen, welcome to Ducourte. I'm Dante, the owner of this establishment, and this is Lucy, the manager," a woman with short, evenly cut hair said as she approached. Roy forced himself to stop staring at the well-endowed manager Lucy.

"I'm Roy Mustang, a reporter from Citizen Soldier magazine. This is Maes Hughes my photographer," Roy said, pointing at first himself them Maes.

"Are you hungry? You're here to take pictures of our signature dishes, right? Feel free to eat them afterwards. This place needs to be promoted, after all," Dante laughed lightly.

"Uh, sure," Maes shrugged, setting his camera bag on the table.

"You'll be covering the grand opening next week, right? I'd very much like it if you two returned. I prefer to work with people I've met before. You understand that I don't want a bunch of strangers crawling all over the place right away," Dante grinned.

"The opening is an invitation-only event. Show these at the door and you'll be allowed in," Lucy instructed, handing the men cream colored envelopes.

"Miss Dante," a girl's voice stated. Roy's breath caught in his throat and he nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Oh, well if it isn't our brilliant sous chef. Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Sharlen Hawkeye. She's interning here with my head chef, Garret. She's in the top of her class at Central Academy," Dante gestured at the redhead.

"Nice to meet you," she grinned. Roy opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head slightly and held a finger to her lips: he had told her to keep it a secret, so it was only fair he should follow his own rule. He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and sank back into his seat.

"She'll be helping you with your article. I'd do it myself, but I have to go see about finishing up the interior," Dante gestured at the half of the restaurant that was still covered with large sheets of plastic.

"Sharlen, do your thing," Lucy said snidely, getting up to follow Dante.

"I know what to do. Shrivel and die," she hissed under her breath.

"What's that?" Maes asked, pointing to the first plate. He pulled out his camera and adjusted the lens before taking a series of pictures.

"Well, to start with, these are all house specialties, our most well-known dishes. This is an Amestrian-style sashimi platter. The recipie was picked up when the head chef vacationed in Xing, but cuisine differs greatly in the two countries. He managed to substitute Xingese flying carp with western rainbow trout and get a similar taste. Prices for importing the ingredients straight from Xing are a smidge out of our price range right now, but we hope to make a huge profit after we open. Please, try some," Sharlen grinned, setting the plate on the table.

"What are those floating things?" Maes asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Oh, that's bonito. It gives the sashimi a sweet flavor. It also has avocado slices, white rice, carrots and cucumber slices, and the whole thing is wrapped in freshwater seaweed, believe it or not."

"Freshwater seaweed? Is there such a thing?" Roy snickered.

"Obviously, if you've just eaten some," Sharlen replied archly. "Next we have char-grilled steak with mashed potatoes and braised vegetables. The veggies were cooked with a sweet and sour sauce, and the same sauce was used to marinate the steak. It's our secret recipie, so that's all I can tell you about it." Maes also took a dozen photos of that dish.

"And this one?" Roy pointed at the last dish.

"This is the Ducourte White Chocolate Secret, our signature dessert," Sharlen explained as Maes snapped photos from various angles.

"You're not going to explain what's in that one?" Maes inquired.

"I can't. It's a secret, hence the name," she grinned.

"Now you're just rubbing it in my face, aren't you?" Roy huffed, leaning back in his chair.

"Rubbing what in?" Sharlen asked innocently.

"It's nothing," Roy said after a slight pause.

"Are you done flirting? Can we go now? It's almost six and I need to change," Maes said, nudging Roy with his elbow.

"Yeah, we're done. See you around. Ladies, thank you, we'll see you at the opening next week," Roy said gallantly, waving at Rose, Dante and Lucy.

The ride to Roy's apartment was silent, save for the steady stream of rock music coming from Maes' iPod. He just didn't feel like talking. He knew that if he opened his mouth even a little, Maes would ask him about Sharlen. He had told her to keep their relationship a secret, and just a few minutes ago she had basically told him to pretend like he didn't know her.

"See you later," Maes called as Roy stepped out of the car and walked away. He waved in response and shut himself away in the elevator.

"Damn it. Why can't I stop thinking about her?" he muttered to himself.

The bell dinged and he shuffled out, fishing his key out of his pocket. He paused when he saw someone sitting on the floor near his door, but smiled when he saw who it was.

"I told you I'd treat you to dinner, didn't I?" she asked. "Can I come in?"

He couldn't help smiling. "Sure."

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__2-6-11: alright, I planned out the rest of this story. It's gonna be ten chapters long. I'm not sure if there'll be an epilogue or not._

_Um... I like steak. So I put steak in here. I can't cook steak to save my life in reality, though. I dunno... I needed a signature dish for Ducourte and thought 'why not steak?' It's a high class restaurant, so it had to be fancy, which was tough. I like the funky sushi too... I'll only eat fish if its in sushi. I can't eat it regularly. I like clam chowder though, I'll eat that._

_Nothing to talk about, really... I'm hoping to get most of this story done since its a three day weekend. Hey, winter homecoming is next week! Yay, I get to see a pathetic display of school spirit... one of the dress-up days is 'lumberjack day' and I can't wait to see how _that_ turns out. The most school spirit I've had during homecoming (winter or normal) was when I dressed up as the Cheshire Cat for normal homecoming this year. And there was this one time sophomore year when I wore a yellow shirt and green glitter on my eyes, but that was accidental._

_Lucy is Lust, by the way. For future reference, Gluttony is Garret, Wrath is Walter, Pride is Peter, Sloth is Sorcha, Envy is Ernesto, and Greed is Gregory. Their sin names are from the street gang they formed, Ouroboros. Just in case I forget to mention that in a chapter and put a Homunculus in there._

_'Citizen Soldier' is taken from a song I heard once in a movie theater during a trailer. I really like the song and thought it would work for the magazine. I'm not sure what kind of magazine it is, but something that features restaurants and stuff, if Maes and Roy are going to Ducourte to write an article. Maybe it's like a local food, shop, hotspot sort of magazine. You know what I'm talking about? It just talks about what's going on in the city, what events there are for the season, new places that are opening up, local celebrities, things like that._

_Oh, Ducourte is just a made up restaurant. Like a family-run business._


	6. Installment 6

**Installment 6: The Kiss**

"You know, you should be careful what time you come visit me," Roy chattered halfway through dinner.

"I should? Oh, right, the whole... age difference... thing," Sharlen sighed. "But I'm busy during the day because of school! Half the time I have a free period, you're off in some random part of town because of work so this is the only time I can see you!"

"You sound like an upset girlfriend," he chuckled.

"I do? I'm sorry... I guess I have been... selfish, lately," she replied stiffly.

"Only lately?" he teased.

"You're being nosy again," she pointed out.

"I am? And here I thought you liked that," he sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"I'm afraid to ask why you think that," she chuckled dryly, pushing a small piece of steak around her plate with her fork.

"Because you call me Tall, Dark and Nosy almost every time you see me," he replied.

"That's a reason? I don't call Ed 'Edward' or Al 'Alphonse' when I talk to them. It's the same thing," she retorted.

"No, it's not," he said smugly.

"Uh, yes it is. Just because your nickname doesn't directly relate to your given name doesn't mean it's not the same," she replied tartly. "Should I call you The Italian Stallion instead, Mustang?"

"Someone's touchy today," he snorted, using his knife to draw swirls on his plate with the leftover sauce.

"I've been like that all week, sorry," she said curtly, grabbing her used dishes and getting up to put them in the dishwasher.

"So how late are you planning to stay tonight?" he asked, gathering his own dishes. He paused amidst his cleaning, staring at something that seemed highly irregular.

"I dunno. Tomorrow's a Saturday, so... I dunno. Why, do you want me to leave?" she called from the kitchen.

"Hey, Sharlen, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" she asked, appearing in the doorway.

"No, I just... there's... um, blood... on your chair," he said, pointing at the chair.

"Oh my god, you've gotta be kidding me, not now..." she muttered, dashing for the bathroom.

"So... you're not... dying or anything, right?" he asked, standing by the closed door.

"Damn it!" she swore. "No, I'm fine. It's... my period just started, that's all. You wouldn't happen to have something I could change into while my clothes get cleaned, do you?" she asked, poking her head outside.

"Hang on," he said, holding a hand out uselessly like it could make her stay where she was.

"Yes sir," she said snootily.

"Here," he said, handing her a brown paper bag five minutes later. She eyed him skeptically and took the bag.

"Trinkets from girlfriends past?" she snickered as she rummaged through the bag's contents.

"More like mementos from bad relationships, so I know what not to do next time," he laughed.

"You've got quite the assortment of undergarments here. You could start a small store, for crying out loud," she commented. "A garter belt, really? People still wear those?"

"Apparently, if I have one," he shrugged.

"I'm afraid to ask why you've kept all this stuff," she said, handing the bag to him as she stepped out of the bathroom.

"I didn't keep it. Those women left these things here," he insisted. "I haven't gotten rid of it all because I don't need my neighbors thinking I'm some kind of pervert."

"Yes, because being a womanizer is bad enough," she rolled her eyes.

"My reputation precedes me," he sighed.

"You know the only reason I'm even talking to you is because you saved me, right?" she asked coyly.

"There's only one reason? So, you're not passionately in love with me yet?" he teased.

"Don't get your hopes up, Nosy," she snorted.

"I... was when I was little. A tiny bit, perhaps. But life got in the way, and I forgot those feelings. If you want me to love you, make me fall in love with you. It's as simple as that," she said after a moment of silence.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that you want me to make you fall in love with me?" Roy asked.

Sharlen turned around to look at him, "Only if you want that. I mean, I only met you that one time thirteen years ago, so..."

"So why do you keep coming over?" he asked.

"Hey, I've only been over twice, mister," she sassed.

"And both of those times have been at night. People will start getting suspicious if it continues," he chided.

"Hey, you brought me here the first time," she pointed out.

"Because you were hurt," he said.

"You could've taken me to a hospital."

"It was too far and I was low on gas."

"So call a taxi! That's why they're there!"

"I'm sorry. I was more concerned about saving your life, again mind you, than about how much I'd have to pay at the gas station on the way to the hospital while you bled to death in my car."

"Then just stop saving me all the time!"

"I can't! I told you I'd protect you and I'm not going back on my word!"

"You really are as much of a douche bag as Ed claims," she scoffed.

"Don't drag that midget into this."

"I wouldn't have had to if you weren't being such a jerk."

"And you're any better? You ruined my car, which is just now getting fixed, and you won't get out of my head!"

"That's my fault?" she demanded.

"If you hadn't tried to kill yourself, maybe not, but since you did it is your fault!"

"And what the hell does me being in your head have to do with anything?"

"Because I can't stop thinking about you, damn it!"

Roy's hands tightened into fists as the argument wore on. On sheer impulse, he grabbed her face and kissed her. When he pulled away, she looked like someone had slapped her face. He let his hands fall to his side and looked away, embarrassed at his sudden spontaniety. In all the relationships he had been in... all those mistakes... he had never, never, ever made the first move. It had always been the person glued to his side, not him. So... why now did he choose to take control? He couldn't figure out...

"Why?"

He blinked and looked around, not sure if he had said that or not.

"Why... why did you do that?" Sharlen asked, her voice barely a whisper.

She brought a trembling hand to her mouth. She had been kissed before, but this time there was magic in it. Somehow... for some reason... that one kiss stood out more than all the others...

"I... I'm sorry..." he mumbled, averting his gaze and clenching his hands. "I... don't know." That much was true, at least. He was sorry, and he had no idea why he did that.

"You... don't know? You kiss me out of the blue and when I ask why you claim you don't know?" she demanded, her voice rising an octave. "I should leave..."

Involuntarily, he reached out to grab her wrist. She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Uh... sorry..."

"If you want me to stay, you just have to say so," she sighed. "But... if you want anything from me you'll have to save me first."

"Save you? From what now? I already hauled your ass off my car the first time, and again when you almost got raped. Is someone trying to kill you or something?" he asked, exasperated. "What the hell do you want me to save you from this time? I know I said I'd protect you, but I can't do that very well if I don't know what's trying to hurt you."

"Save me from myself," she replied firmly.

She snatched her wrist back and stormed out the door. As soon as she was outside, she bolted for Riza's apartment.

"Sharlen?" the blond exclaimed, startled by the girl's sudden appearance. She nearly lost her balance as the teen launched herself at her older cousin.

"What do I do, Riza?" she asked, clinging to the woman's shirt. "I'm so confused... what the hell should I do?"

"I thought you were visiting Roy. What happened?" Riza inquired gently.

"He kissed me..." the redhead replied softly. "We had a small argument and he kissed me out of the blue. I asked him why, but he wouldn't answer so I just left!" She stopped talking, because she was crying too hard to form intelligible words.

"Is that so..." Riza mused, more to herself than to the girl sobbing uncontrollably. "Well then, we'll just have to get an explanation."

"H-huh?" Sharlen blubbered, rubbing at her eyes.

Riza pulled out her cell phone and punched in Roy's number. He answered on the fourth ring.

"Yeah?"

"You better have a damn good excuse for what you did," the blond snapped viciously.

"What I did?" he repated stupidly.

"Sharlen is over here crying her eyes out. Care to explain why?" she demanded.

"...I kissed her..." came the muffled reply.

"That's what she said," Riza said stiffly. "And your reasoning for doing that is..."

"I don't know..."

Riza couldn't help laughing. Sharlen sniffled and wiped her face with the back of her hands.

"It's not funny; stop laughing," Roy said crisply.

"That's so typical of men. Especially you. You're always so passive when it comes to relationships... sometimes I wonder if you've ever cared about anyone other than yourself," Riza said wryly. She hung up and Roy stared at his cell.

"I do care about other people... you just don't notice..." he pouted.

He tossed his phone on the coffee table and fell backwards onto his couch. He covered his face with his hands, wishing the earth would split open and swallow him. Why did he feel so awful? It was like someone had reached inside and replaced his heart with rotting fruit, as unpleasant as that seemed. And... he didn't give a good enough answer. Now he had probably screwed up his relationship with Sharlen, just because of one stupid kiss!

The memory of the action made his lips tingle and he felt like a stupid teenager again. He clutched his head and writhed in agony. _Why_ did he have to go and do that?

"Why?" he complained aloud, smushing his face into a pillow.

He sighed angrily and stared at his phone, which had fallen to the floor in his fit. The screen lit up and it vibrated, meaning he had a new text message. He pondered whether to answer it or leave it alone for the time being.

And Riza... what was her problem? Just because she was that girl's cousin... it didn't give her the right to say he didn't care about anyone besides himself. He did care, about a lot of people. He just wasn't good at expressing it. She should know that; they had dated briefly in high school.

He cared.

"That's it..." he mumbled. He sat up straight and ran a hand through his hair. "That's the reason why... I'm such an idiot."

His phone lit up again, and it rang as well. He picked it up and answered it.

"I apologize for earlier, but you were being a selfish dick. The next time you see her, you will apologize," Riza said sharply.

"I... I care," he said lamely, smacking his forehead with his free hand. Could he have sounded any more stupid? "I kissed her because I care about her. She said I'd have to save her from herself if I wanted anything."

"Do you want something?" Riza inquired.

"She said... she loved me a little bit when we were little. I want her to love me again... and I want to love her back. I know I can, but I keep fucking everything up..." he muttered, pulling out his pack of cigarettes and lighting one. He took a long drag and exhaled slowly, watching the pale grey smoke twist and curl as it rose into the air and dissipated. It was calming, smoking. He wondered why he tried quitting. Oh, yes, because cigarettes were bad for you. Still, that didn't stop him, or Jean for that matter. Regardless of the mortality of the cigarette, it felt nice to smoke again, though he'd probably end up trying to quit again sooner or later. It was a strange cycle that had been dragging on for a little over a year now.

"You're a guy; you can't help it."

"Thanks..." he grimaced.

"I know you're capable of living up to those high-and-mighty words you just said. You just have to let yourself feel once in a while. Stop being so stoic. That's what first pissed me off when we were dating: you never showed any real emotion. Are you scared?"

Roy smiled. "If I ever find out, I'll let you know."

"All right. I've gotta go take care of the mess you made. But you better do something to fix it or else," Riza threatened.

"Right," he replied before hanging up.

As an afterthought, he went to his message inbox and opened the text he recieved earlier.

"You've got to be kidding me..." he snickered. He quickly closed the message and dialed the number for his best friend's phone.

"Yes?" Maes answered, sounding like he was trying very hard not to grin.

"So you're getting married, eh? What took so long?" he asked coyly.

"We were wating for a good time," Maes giggled.

"And now is better than before?" Roy inquired.

"Well... Gracia's pregnant, so we kinda wanna get the formalities over and done with," Maes snickered gleefully. "You're gonna be my best man, kay?"

"Fine, fine," he sighed, stretching out on the couch and rubbing his forehead. "Oops, gotta go now. See you later!" Maes chirped before hanging up.

Roy let his phone slip from his fingers and land somewhere on the floor. He covered his eyes with one arm and let the other just dangle over the edge of the couch. He was so tired...too much had happened today. He was glad tomorrow was Saturday; that meant he could sleep in until who knew what time in the afternoon. It would give him plenty of time to mull over what happened and the best way to fix it.

He hadn't liked someone that much since... well, it was actually the first time he really liked someone, at least, as far as he could remember. He had dated quite a few women before, and it wasn't like he really remembered all of them. Was it because he had met her before, or because of what he said to her? Why did he care about Sharlen so much? What made him feel like some dorky thirteen-year-old every time he was around her? It couldn't be love... there was just no way. He barely knew anything about her... should he be feeling this way so early in the game? Was it really so bad? He doubted things could get much worse... well, they could, but he preferred not to think about that at the moment.

Absently, as he was somewhere between alseep and awake, he made a mental note that he'd have to clean up the blood on the chair in the morning... and get the clothes Sharlen had left behind in her... moodiness.

He slept, eventually, and dreamed of the redhead, watching as she cried and feeling more useless than ever. He didn't even notice that his cigarette had burnt out.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__2-13-11: ah, kissing! Kissing's great. Kissing's fun. I personally wouldn't know, but it's something I like to write about. You wanna know something weird about me? I don't mind seeing kisses and stuff in anime, but if I see real people kiss on TV or in the halls at school, I get totally grossed out. My brain just goes 'Eww!' I don't know why, but I hate seeing people kiss in real life. I dislike PDA of any sort, really, in real life. I don't know if it's just jealousy or what, but I hate even people holding hands. I'm the kind of person who will yell 'get a room' to people making out across the room. This chapter can be for the holiday... Crappy Valentines Day, guys!_

_I noticed the handcuffs, by the way. I have a picture saved on my computer of Ed and Roy and there's a long chain in it. I thought it was just from the pocket watch (state alchemists and all) but I noticed that Ed's automail looked kinda different. And I saw the handcuff (and the one on Roy's wrist too) and the light bulb went off in my head. I felt really stupid, but now I can't figure out what's in Roy's hand, because he looks like he's holding something. I thought _that_ might be the pocket watch, but it's too tiny to tell and when I zoom in it just gets pixelated and I can't see what it is..._

_I have 44 messages on my DA account, but I can't see them because my computer is too slow! I have 19 feedback things, 21 deviantWatch things, and four notices. Of course, I had to reset my password because I was using my house computer, not my laptop (which actually remembers when I click 'remember me' when logging in) and couldn't remember my password. And I have a lot of stuff to add to it too! Gah, I hate my Internet connections!_

_I managed to crack the security code for a wifi near my house (I just dragged my hands over the keyboard and clicked 'connect' and the third or fourth try got me in) but I have no network access! I can't get online! What was the point of cracking it for the second time (because I deleted the connection data in the Network and Sharing Center page on my laptop the first time I cracked it) if I can't access the internet? I'll have to see if I can go to my friends house this coming weekend... or find a good connection near my school..._

_My mom said my shirt was really low cut today. It wasn't low cut, I just have big boobs (a C cup isn't that big, actually, but still) and the shirt fell victim to gravity, so it wasn't my fault. Actually, most of my shirts either ride up around my stomach or get pulled down to expose my boobs... I have a strange relationship with shirts... of course, I was sitting next to my pervert of a brother... he keeps fucking up the house computer by downloading internet porn and shit..._

_Oh, I had to change the rating because of what happens in installment 8. Just FYI._


	7. Installment 7

**Installment 7: The Confession**

Idiot.

That was probably the best word to describe himself right now.

"Idiot..." Roy looked up to see a stack of papers shoved in his face. "You really are an idiot."

"Shut your trap, Elric," he snorted.

Edward snickered and folded his arms across his chest.

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me," the blond chanted.

"Midget."

"Don't call me a midget!" Edward shrieked.

Roy took a small amount of pleasure in the teen's rant. Picking on Edward was one of his favorite past times, and the only entertainment he got during the work week. He tuned out the hotheaded blond and absently flipped through the papers he was handed. It looked fine; his writing ususally was, and looked like it wouldn't need much improvement.

Once again, as it so often had in the past week since his stupid move, his mind drifted to Sharlen. He couldn't forget the look of shock on her face... or how she just turned and ran away from him. Had that... ever happened before? Now that he thought about it... this was the first time someone had run away from him after he had kissed them. Usually, they smiled and returned it and that more often than not led to...

"Roy! How goes?" Maes burst into the room, making the man jump. "Hm? Something wrong? Your face is turning bright red. You get a fever or something?"

"Hughes..." Roy mumbled, letting his head fall against his desk."Never mind, we've got a job to do, remember?"

"Job?" he asked stupidly.

"You're covering the grand opening of Ducourte tonight, remember?" Edward said snidely.

"How do you know that? I never told you," Roy mumbled.

"My school is making me go to write an article about it for the school paper," the blond grimaced. "I have to dress up and everything. I'm really dreading it."

"You sound like a girl," Roy snorted. "Are you going to curl your hair and wear a pretty dress and everything?"

"Why don't you just drop dead?" Edward asked tightly, forcing a grin.

Roy chuckled to himself as Edward stormed away. The boy could be so transparent... it was hilarious. That's right... the opening of Ducourte was tonight... was he ready for that? Certainly he could handle the business part of it, but Sharlen was going to be there. How would he act? How _should_ he act? He had done something foolish and she hadn't spoken to him in a week. He just _had_ to jump the gun... and now he was sitting in his office, dreading the evening and wishing he was dead. He let his head fall to his desk, the ashtray nearby clinking from the motion. What was he going to do?

"Hey, you sleeping on the job again?" Maes burst through the door.

"Get lost," Roy grumbled sharply.

"No can do, sorry 'bout that. Come on, get up and go get dressed! We've got important business tonight," Maes chattered like a silly monkey and tugged on Roy's arm, nearly succeeding in dragging the man to the floor.

"I can't."

"Because of your little girlfriend?"

Roy sat up straight and shot Maes and confused and angry look.

"Come on, I'm your best friend. You can't keep everything secret from me. I saw how you reacted when she showed up at Ducourte last week. Seriously..." he said, lowering his voice.

"Stop with the cradle robbing."

"Ugh, seriously?" Roy screeched, standing up so quickly what his chair fell over. It clattered against the floor, but now paid any attention to it.

"Please, it's bad enough that you're the personification of the word 'womanizer' and I don't think you'd want to be labeled a pedophile on top of that," Maes smirked.

"She's seventeen," he said lamely.

"That's still under the age of majority," Maes pointed out. "If you want my advice, keep the relationship platonic as long as possible, preferrably until she's eighteen. Then you two can canoodle all you want."

"Oh geez, shut up!" Roy barked, clutching his head in this hands. "It's not like I planned on falling in love with her! It just happened!"

"You love her?"

"I what?"

"You said you didn't plan on falling in love with her. Do you love her?" Maes inquired.

Roy stopped to think. Did he love her? _Should_ he love her? It did seem like a possibility... and those fleeting feelings he had felt back then did seem to be making a comeback. It would be so easy to love her, actually. There was just the whole suicide issue to work out.

_"If you want anything from me, you'll have to save me first... save me from myself."_

Her words echoed in his head, mocking him, teasing him... challenging him. His mouth formed a firm line and he stormed for the door.

He _would_ go to the opening tonight, come what may. He _would_ face Sharlen... he _would_ apologize for what he did. He wasn't entirely sure of what his heart was feeling, but that was okay with him. Right now... he had something important to do.

His past? His reputation? They could rot in hell for all he cared.

He hurt someone he cared about very much. Whether that 'care' was 'love' or merely 'fascination' didn't matter; he still **cared**. He may as well have stabbed himself in the chest for all he was hurting inside. But...

Tonight would change everything, be it for better or for worse.

"Of course, you'll have to bring a date to the wedding. I'm sure you've got address books full of available women, but I highly recommend your little girlfriend," Maes rambled.

"She is not my girlfriend," he replied firmly, grabbing Maes' camera bag and shoving it into his friend's chest.

"Childhood sweetheart, then?"

"Maes, stop talking."

The two went their separate ways and Roy had to be extra careful as he drove home, because for some reason or another he wanted to speed like it was The Fast and The Furious. He changed into something a bit more formal, putting on a clean dress shirt and black slacks. He managed to do something with his hair so it didn't look as messy as it usually did. As soon as he was ready to step out into Central's night life, he breezed out the door and made a beeline for his car.

Ducourte was already teeming with people, though it was only a quarter past six and the opening wasn't scheduled to start until seven. Now that he was here, ironically, Roy felt sick to his stomach. He hadn't seen the redhead yet, but knew he would eventually and that frightened him just a bit. What was he going to do? What should he say?

"You've got a lot of balls to show your face here tonight," a voice commented sourly.

"I'm sure most of it's just stupidity," he replied.

He looked to his left and saw Sharlen standing moodily next to him. She wore a deep purple dress with a plunging neckline and had her hair pinned out of her face. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and cocked an eyebrow. She expected him to say something.

"Look, I came because..."

"You needed to cover the opening, right, Mister Reporter? You didn't care about me, you just cared enough about your reputation to show up and do your job. I'm just one of your many back-up girls if something goes wrong, and the only reason you keep me around is because you get a kick out of the illegality of it, because I'm underage. Isn't that right?" she sneered and stormed off.

Ooh, that was it. That was the very last straw.

"Sharlen," he called, weaving through the crowds of people in the restaurant. "Sharlen, wait a minute."

"What?" she snapped, whirling around to glare at him.

"Can I explain?" he asked, though it was more of a sigh.

"Oh, you don't need to. I understand everything," she drawled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to attend to."

"Hey, I'm trying to talk to you, damn it!" he snapped, still following her as she wandered aimlessly around the massive kitchen.

She folded her hands behind her head, but he knew she was covering her ears. He ground his teeth together and grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, what the hell?" she exclaimed.

"Since you insist on being stubborn, I have no choice but to make you listen."

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" she snapped.

He stormed out of the restaurant, dragging her along behind him. His job? His reputation? He'll be damned; compared to this, they meant little.

"Ow! Hey!" she whined as she was shoved inside his car. "There's a word for this, it's called kidnapping!"

"Sit down and buckle your seatbelt. I'm not going to leave you alone until you listen to me," he said nonchalantly.

Sharlen grumbled, but obliged and buckled her seatbelt. She glared moodily out the window as he drove through the city. Why? Why now? Why did he have to say he wanted to explain? She already understood everything...

"I thought I wasn't supposed to come over at night anymore," she commented when they were inside his apartment.

"Too late for that now, I suppose. Make yourself comfortable. If you're going to be this obstinate all night, we could be at this impasse all night and probably well into tomorrow," he shrugged out of his overcoat and tossed it over the back of the couch.

"Or what?" she demanded.

"I'll strap you down and make you listen to me."

"Now you're resorting to kinky domestic violence?"

"If that's what it takes to get you to listen to me."

"I told you, I already know," she said snottily.

"No, you don't," he snapped, turning around to face her.

"Horsefeathers," she snorted, making her way to the door.

"God damn it, Sharlen, can't you listen to me? I am trying to fix my mistake!" he sighed angrily, following her.

He reached out and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from walking any further. She whirled around and glared at him feircely, but it didn't affect him.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" she cried as he backed her up against the wall and leaned over her, further preventing any movement.

"No... I won't," he said firmly, tightening his grip. "I won't let go, I won't leave you alone. If I can't fix you, I'll accept you as you are. If I can't save you, I'll go down with you. I'd do anything for you. I won't let you go, I won't leave. I'll always be here, even if it seems like you don't want me. I refuse to leave you alone. I've waited thirteen years to find you again, and I will not lose you again, Sharlen..."

He felt his cheeks heat up almost unbearably. He wanted to look away, but he didn't. Was it that he couldn't... or that he didn't want to? Either way, he just had to tell her...

"I love you."

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2**__ 2-21-11: Almost done already! But... this story is only ten chapters long, so that makes sense. I'm so used to writing these big over-forty-five-chapter-long epics that something as small and concise as this is throwing me off a bit. I think... for my next under-fifteen-chapters-long story, I'll do a romantic comedy... maybe some boy's love? I already wrote a RoyXEd one (however crappy it may be), so maybe this time I'll try Elricest?_

_I spent the past few days lying in bed and doing nothing. Well, I have been a little ill lately (emotionally, not physically) so that might make sense. But it's mostly to stay warm!_

_Well, that's not entirely true. It snowed recently, and where I live (up a mountain... the Sierra Nevada's... I'm kinda close to dodge Ridge) when it snows a lot like it did recently, the power usually goes out! I've had no power for a few days now and I'm really, really cold! And I really want something warm in my stomach... but it's so cold that the food in the fridge isn't going bad, so that's a good thing? I've been living off chips, Pop-Tarts (unheated, unfortunately), and string cheese since the power outage (there's your Rin-chan's Food Recommendation for this chapter). Apparently, the entire town is out of power and it'll take a while to get power up near my house..._

_There was a lot of damage caused by the snow. Zillions (not really, but quite a few) trees fell over, and I'm assuming they've taken power lines down with them, which is why no one's had any power for the past few days. There's a big oak tree right next to my house and part of it, a really big branch, broke off and totally crushed our woodshed! And in the backyard, one tree was completely uprooted! I heard people using chainsaws all day, so hopefully we'll get poer back soon. I really miss the heat. I'm going to move somewhere where it never snows! Maybe... Brazil or something. Normally, I'd say Egypt, but considering what's been going on recently that might be just about the stupidest idea on the face of the planet._

_My fingers are so cold, and typing is a bit of a chore. I can't even draw, which is really bugging me because I got an idea for a really cute picture of Al (I tried drawing the pencil sketch; it was an EPIC fail) and a shockingly shojo picture for Ed! I was reading Full Moon the past two days, and Tanemura-sensei's drawings always inspire __**something...**_

_Ironically, this same exact thing happened back in November! Only two trees fell over onto our power lines, so we had no power for a few days longer than everyone else... I've been traumatized by the incident (they fell over right outside my window) and I now hate snow. I want it to be summer! Heat! Sunshine! I want to eat ice cream without freezing to death!But for some reason, I wear a sweater no matter what the weather is like (it can be a hundred degrees out or snowing, I'll wear a sweater) but I'd much prefer the heat right now! I condemn this crappy winter weather to Hell! And my hair is just a nuisance to deal with... it gets greasy and oily after one day, so it gets hard to manage (not to mention cold against bare skin!) and I can't fix it because there's no hot water with which I can shower! I'm sorry, but personal hygeine can take a vacation for a few days if pneumonia might be caught if I get my hair wet or something... the water still works, there's just no hot water._

_I've never been so cold, hungry, and pissed off in my entire life! Not to mention unclean and smelly. I officially hate the cold weather. Spring is my new favorite season. I got cabin fever so bad... I was mad at everything! I was in a really rotten mood for most of the power outage._


	8. Installment 8

**Installment 8: The Mistake**

"I... I love you too..." Sharlen said weakly.

Roy felt a smile break out on his face. She didn't hate him after all. He was so relieved to hear that.

"I... I didn't mean it... when I said those awful things... I was upset and didn't think clearly... I'm so sorry, Roy!" she sobbed, large tears spilling from her eyes.

She was about to say something else, but he silenced her with another kiss. He could taste something on her lips, sweet and slightly spicy. Probably some sort of sauce used in one ot the dishes that would be served at the opening they had ditched.

"Don't say anything," he whispered, pulling away enough to speak. "You don't have to say anything."

She closed the distance between them and resumed the kiss, pulling him closer. One of his hands reached up to caress her cheek and the other went around her waist. She sighed lightly and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue inside her mouth. Her hands, which had been hovering over her chest nervously, reached up and pulled at his tie. The silk was soft and cool against her fingers as she untied it from around his neck. He slid his hand underneath her skirt and up her thigh. She began unbuttoning his shirt, exposing the pale, firm flesh beneath. He smiled as she gave a disappointed moan when he kissed her jaw line, then up and down her neck.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, licking her ear.

"Yes..." she breathed, arching her back as he bit down on her neck.

He slid a hand beneath her legs and easily lifted her off the couch. She didn't show any signs of protest, so he carried her to the bedroom. She was so skinny... how could someone who loved to make and eat food so much weigh so little? He worried he might snap her in half if he wasn't careful. He set her gently on the bed and carefully climbed on top of her. Removing her dress was easy, and it made a soft rustling sound as it landed somewhere on the floor. However, he just had to ask...

"What size are you?" He squeezed one of her breasts so she knew what he was talking about.

"B... why?" she replied, her breath coming in short gasps.

"Just asking..." he mumbled, sliding a hand around her to unhook the lacy bra she wore.

It was some time before he noticed that he was half undressed as well and she was working at his belt. The lustful haze clouding his mind was too strong for him to distinguish the amount of time took to remove the rest of their clothing, as was the growing pain in his groin. He absently... almost blankly... thought that if something wasn't done quickly he would ruin his one good pair of dress pants. Before he knew it, he had plunged inside her. She gave a small cry and bit down on his shoulder, more from pain than for pleasure.

"Damn... you're tight..." he mumbled aloud.

"I wouldn't seem so tight... if you weren't so big..." she teased, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for another heated kiss.

Somehow, and neither was sure how, time passed and the crescent moon rose in the night sky, casting a faint blue glow on everything as it peeked through the window. This clearly indicated the passage of time, but no one was bothering to pay attention to it. The pull of bare flesh, the scent of warm skin, the rhythmic pulsing of hearts and bodies... nothing else mattered now. The only thing that existed in this one instance where two people got close enough to be one... the entire world and universe... was the other person. The one that had been lost for thirteen long years. The one that had finally, finally been found.

"Oh my god," Sharlen muttered quite some time later. She sat up and held the bedcovers against her chest.

_What had she just done?_

"Ah... ohmigod... damn. Damn, damn, damn. What is wrong with me?" she muttered, bringing the sheet up to her mouth.

She scrambled out of bed, carefully and quietly, and managed to find something suitable to wear. She went to the bathroom to clean up, since she felt sweaty and sticky, especially her legs. The light was sudden and bright and she had to wait for a few minuted before her eyes adjusted to the they did, finally, she looked in the mirror and sighed heavily. She was an absolute mess. Her hair was a dark red tumbleweed and makeup was smeared and smudged across her face, making her resemble a strange football player/raccoon. She had crease marks from the sheets on her shoulders and face.

"I'm dead. If anyone finds out, I am gonna die..." she muttered, wetting a washrag and wiping away her makeup.

She considered taking a shower, but didn't want to wake Roy up. Especially since it was two in the morning, according to the small clock hanging on the wall next to the door.

She went to clean the rest of her body and paused. Even the _thought _of someone touching her... _down there_... weirded her out... and someone had! She felt dirty as she cleaned herself up. And maybe a bit ashamed? No... it was a natural human instinct. There was no shame in doing what came naturally, for the first time with someone she loved. So why did she feel strange?

"You're still here. Okay," Roy said with relief.

"You scared the crap outta me!" she hissed. She had jumped like some sort of retard and was blushing bright red.

"Sorry. I thought you had left when you weren't in bed," he replied. "What's wrong?"

"Please put something on!" she said, making sure she didn't look at him.

Roy rolled his eyes and wrapped a towel around his waist.

"I'm decent now, you can look."

"That's... better, I suppose..." she mumbled, giving the towel a cursory glance and wrapping the washcloth around her hand nervously.

"My life's work has been completed," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up and drop dead," she spat.

"Geez, romance me with sweet talk, why don't you?" he chortled. "That's so stereotypical."

"What is?"

"The girl wearing an oversized button down shirt."

Sharlen rolled her eyes and pushed past him, "It was the only thing that I could find in the darkness." She stormed out of the bathroom.

"Was it something I said?"

"I am so dead," she mumbled, rummaging through the freezer and pulling out a carton of ice cream and a bottle of chocolate sauce.

"Oh, are you gonna kill yourself again?" Roy teased. She shot him a death glare. "I just need to know if I need to park my car under a cetain building."

"No... no, it's just... if anyone finds out what happened, I could get suspended from school. Expelled. Kicked out, even," she grumbled, pouring a large amount of chocolate sauce on the ice cream and eating it straight out of the carton.

"I think 'expelled' and 'kicked out' are the same thing," Roy pointed out.

"Okay, can you just let me rant for, like, ten minutes?" she hissed.

"Sorry," he mumbled sarcastically.

"No... No, I should be sorry. I'm acting kinda weird," she said into the ice cream.

Roy walked over to her and kissed her gently. He could taste the ice cream on her lips, the chocolate mint flavor making his lips tingle.

"I understand. I've seen it plenty of times. You can act as weird as you want."

"Um... thanks?"

He chuckled at her reaction. She was blushing, her face about the same color as that tattered red hoodie Edward always wore, and trying to hide behind the spoon she had been using to eat the ice ceam. She kept glancing at him out of the corner of her eye and looking away again.

The next day... or rather, that day, was a Saturday. Now, whether that was a coincidence or not remains unseen, but the two lovers didn't really care. All that mattered right then was the other person. The apartment and the things inside it were the only things in the entire universe as far as they were concerned. The world could be ending for all they knew, but even then they would spend their last moments together.

"Roy?" Sharlen asked, pushing uncooked eggs around a skillet as they cooked.

"Sharlen," he replied.

"Why did you say you loved me first?"

"Uh, i hate to beak this to you, but you're not the first girl I've said 'I love you' to," he shickered.

"That's not what I meant, dumbass. I meant why did you say it first, before I did? In stories and manga girls are always the first to confess their love," she explained.

"I jumped the gun?" he offered. Her hard stare bore through his skull and peirced his soul.

"Roy's answer, take two," she quipped, waving a spatula at him.

"I needed you to know. I didn't want you to think i was just using you or playing with you..."

"But you did," she interrupted with a smirk.

"Not like that," he sassed, swatting her. "I have a eputation as a womanizer, so some people don't take me seriously. If you've listened to any of the women I've dated..."

"Shouldn't be hard to find one."

"Stop interrupting me."

"Sorry," she replied meekly.

"If you've listened to any of the women I've dated, I guarantee that all of them will tell you that I've never made the first move."

Sharlen thought about this for a moment or two, pushing the eggs around as they cooked then scooping them onto plates.

"You know, I think Riza mentioned something about that..." she mused. "She also said you were a very sloppy kisser."

"She said that?" Roy asked, sounding more concerned than he should be.

"She was wrong, of course, but still," she teased.

Roy snatched the spatula out of her hand and whacked her bottom with it. She yelped in shock, rather than pain, because everyone knew that a playful whack with a spatula wouldn't even leave a mark.

"Don't hit me! That's child abuse!" she squealed.

"It is not. Stop exaggerating," he sighed with mock annoyance.

"There we go: Huevos de Sharlen, with chorizo (a spicy sausage), bell peppers, sour cream, cheddar cheese, guacamole and Tobasco sauce," she said smugly, setting the plates laden with food on the table.

"You sit over there," Roy said, pointing to a chair across from the one Sharlen was pulling out.

"Does it really matter?" she asked.

"Yes. You bled all over that chair, which I had to clean up, mind you, and it was very unpleasant, and so now your blood DNA has been fused with that chair so you have to sit there."

"Alright, if you insist," she sighed and plopped in the designated chair. "I don't see how it was disgusting, though."

"Blood is gross, okay? It should stay inside the body!" Roy insisted.

"Then tell that to my anatomy," she snorted.

"Sharlen's Anatomy, please don't make her bleed all over my furniture. I won't be able to touch anything."

"It is gross because it's blood or because it came out of my pussy?"

"Both?"

"Well, then maybe you should take a shower and disinfect yourself, since you touched it last night," she said coolly, pouring Tabasco sauce over her breakfast.

"Only if you take it with me," he teased.

"Keep dreaming," she scoffed.

"Why not? I know you were thinking about it earlier this morning when you were wiping yourself off," he replied.

"That makes it sound dirty."

The two spent the day doing much of nothing. Sharlen screwed up almost all of the saved data for Roy's RPG's and lost twenty Brawl battles in a row. He then got his butt whooped over and over because Sharlen claimed that her ancestors invented Dance Dance Revolution and it was simply part of her to dance well. They made love again after a lunch of take-out Xingese food and watched reruns of Futurama, finishing off what remained of the ice cream. Sharlen spent the night again, but who was complaining? She clearly wasn't, and Roy certainly didn't mind. Actually, if he could have things his way, he'd have her move in with him. Sadly, he didn't get everything he wanted.

Sunday, however, was different.

"Maybe you should keep a change of clothes here," Roy called through the bathroom door as Sharlen showered.

"You want me to come over that often?" she replied, her voice sounding distant because of the closed door and rushing water.

"No, it's just that almost every time you've come over you've had to change clothes. It'd look wierd if you came over one day wearing one outfit then left the next day wearing the same one. People would think you're a slob who's too lazy to change her clothes," he replied.

"Why? I could just borrow something of yours. And people really only notice shirts. Once, I wore the same keans three days in a row, but no one even noticed."

"My clothes are too big on you," he snorted.

"Ever hear of a nifty little invention called the safety pin?"

"You know, that's false advertisement. I've stabbed myself countless times with those things."

"I'm afraid to ask why," she chuckled, turning off the water.

"Good, because I can't remember," he snickered.

"Acupuncture?" she asked, opening the door and letting steam gush out like... well, like someone had bitten into one of those Gusher candy things.

"Maybe," he shrugged.

"I doubt you use it for something like sewing."

"I'm not much of a DIY person," he said dryly.

"It's okay; I'm not either," she grinned.

They kissed again, multiple times. Roy loved each and every moment of it. He hated that she had to go home today, because there was school tomorrow, but that meant he'd get the joy of seeing her again. One kiss lingered longer than the others, and grew more passionate as tme wore on.

"You should get going before I fuck you again," he cut in when they broke for air.

"Good idea," she agreed, smoothing her hair back and straightening her shirt.

She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, breathing in the scent of musty air. The windows had been open in the apartment because of the nice weather, but there were no windows in the hallway and people weren't going to leave their doors open for everyone to poke their heads inside and snoop around one's personal life. They shared a goodbye kiss, quick and brief compared to the others. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Roy heard a door open nearby. That would be one of his neighbors. He hoped they weren't going to complain about the ... ahem... noise.

"Miss Hawkeye. What are you doing here, so early in the morning?" a man's voice asked lightly, though the teen could easily pick out tones of disgust, arrogance, and pride. She whirled around and her eyes went wide with fear. She knew that voice all too well.

"P-principal Raven..." Sharlen managed to stutter. Her principal, the one who could easily kick her out of culinary school for any legitimate reason, was Roy's next-door neighbor?

"Might I ask what you're doing in front of my neighbor's door? Morning, Roy." Roy mumbled a 'hello' back at the man, and offered half a smile.

Oh, this was bad.

"Uh... we knew each other when we were little. I was just visiting," she said as steadily as she could.

"So I... _heard_," the man said, emphazising the word 'heard' to indicate that he knew all too well what had gone on... Sharlen bit her lip and wished she had kept quiet last night. But it was impossible at the time. She felt so wonderful that she had just had to... she shivered at the memory.

This was very, very bad.

"I'll need to speak with you at school. You will attend," the man said gruffly.

Sharlen felt her knees go weak and prayed for the earth to open up and swallow her whole.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__3-1-11: sorry this was was so... explicit... in the beginning. Maybe that means I'm maturing as a writer? Or maybe it means I was just horny when I wrote that... I don't know, who cares? I don't! Well... I care about my writing, but now that this chapter's done, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Muahahahahaha..._

_I wanted to work on this more at school, but because of the content of this chapter, I couldn't. You know how it is: if you aren't doing the work (which, for your information, I had finished quite a while ago [ we were writing a research papaer for our English class] which is why I wasn't doing my work) EVERYONE wants to know what you're doing and they lean over your shoulder and watch you like it's the most fascinating thing on the planet. I couldn't risk anyone reading the beginning, so this one took a little longer to come out. I still like it, though. I like most of the stuff I write. I try to avoid writing about things that I don't like._

_Well, that's not entirely true. No one likes suicide or rape, but I have to write about it anyway. Especially in Godsend. Woof. I don't know where that 'woof' came from, I meant to type 'whew' but for some reason I keep typing like I'm talking so I'm not going back to change it. I'm strange._

_Poor characters... I'm so mean to my OC's sometimes... Christin got raped, Aislinn was murdered (and raped, kinda), Sharlen is in BIG trouble (obviously), Asher (from Fullmetal Alchemist and the Nightmare Realms, in case you didn't know... that was my first real fanfic and is very crappy. I'm thinking about re-writing it one of these days...) was abused, Rune from ALBE was tortured and branded, Hao was murdered and skinned like an animal... Robin was killed twice, but he's a bad guy so no one cares what happens to him._

_Huh._

_I ordered more manga, for those of you who want to know what's been going on in my reality. Book 7 of Full Moon o Sagashite and books 7 through 11 of The Gentleman's Alliance Cross. I almost forgot to order book seven of Shinkuro, but remembered. They are supposed to come in on Wednesday (March 2) and I am so excited. Now I'll have three complete series instead of just one (Alice 19th) so huzzah! I read them all in the bookstore (a big chain like Borders; we just have a small rinky-dink 'mom and pop' bookstore in the town where I live, so I have to order all my manga) before so I know what happens, but I wanna read them all again over and over without having to drive to Modesto. And I read them all a couple years ago so I don't really remember what happens. Well, I remember some stuff that happens to Haine (but I won't tell cuz it'll spoil the story for those of you who haven't read the whole series) and what happens to Mitsuki at the end. But not the little 'this is how this happened and why it's that way in the end' intricacies._

_Um... lately I've been writing the last few lines of a chapter before I write the middle that's close to the end (um... I mean... I'll get close to the end of a chapter and write the last lines so I know what needs to happen). It's kinda wierd, but it does help me plan out the chapter so I know where to end one and start the next._

_Huevos means eggs in Spanish, for those of you who don't know that. (Who doesn't really?) I shouldn't say that; I'm Puerto Rican, so I've known Spanish all my life. Not much, but I know Spanish. I dreamt in Spanish, actually. I was down in South America and had to evacuate the jungle I was hiking through because the river was overflowing because of a flash flood. At least, that's what the natives were screaming. I woke up before anything else happened, really. But I haven't spoken in Spanish in a long time (it's been a year since I stopped taking Spanish classes at school) so I'm kinda trying to use it more when I talk in my head. My words are getting weird again... I think, I mean that I use Spanish when I'm thinking._

_I spent an hour and a half configuring the dates for a series of stories I'm gonna become famous for. Because there are these non-human characters (Demons, Angels, Fairies, etc) that age slower than humans (so many years for a human is one year for a non-human) that show up in several different stories... well, there's a trilogy, really. Prequel, Story, Sequel, y'know? And I spent almost two hours making sure that one character's age was consistent with another character's age and I got a huge headache over it! But after I got the two prominent female non-human characters ages figured out, the rest was easy, fortunately._


	9. Installment 9

**Installment 9: The Accident**

"Miss Hawkeye..." Principal Raven said the next morning.

Sharlen repressed a shiver and steeled herself for what was to come. She had almost been late to school because she wasn't sure if she wanted to attend or not, but had decided that the best course of action would be to go and see what her principlal was going to do.

"I need to speak with you in my office," he said sternly, gesturing down the hallway.

"Yes..." she replied automatically.

"Sharlen?" Edward asked.

"What's going on?" Alphonse added.

"It's nothing... you need to concern yourselves with," Sharlen replied flatly.

She glanced over her shoulder at her friends. The brothers... and Winry, who was clinging to Edward's arm, near tears for some reason or another. They had started dating recently and there was a mutual feeling of relief in the entire class, because everyone thought those two belonged together. Even Sheska, a notoriously wacky bookworm, was gawking at her. There were rumors that she and Alphonse had a bit of a thing going, but that hardly mattered now.

"See you," she mumbled and shuffled down the hall after Raven.

"You do realize that what you did greatly affects your chance of staying in school. Central Academy is one of the top schools in the country, but also one of the most strict. Now, would you care to explain why you left my neighbor's apartment yesterday morning?" Raven started with a huff, seating himself behind a large mahogany desk covered with papers and pens and confiscated iPods and cell phones and one of those dolls people are supposed to squeeze when they're stressed.

"Like I said, we knew each other when we were little. I was just visiting," she replied as monotonously as she could.

"At seven in the morning?"

"It was the only free time I had that day. I live alone in the dorms, so I have to take care of everything myself like cooking and cleaning."

"Well, surely cooking isn't so hard for you. That's the whole reason you entered this school, isn't it? To become a chef?"

She looked at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. "Yes..."

"So, why were you at his apartment so ealy?"

"I..." she stalled. If she told the truth, she'd get expelled for sure!

"It's alright, Miss Hawkeye. I'm trying to help you. Mr. Mustang can be arrested for having sex with a minor. I need to know if anything happened."

"No... nothing happened. Nothing happened!" she snapped, folding her arms protectively across her chest.

She felt vulnerable... like a knight thrust onto the battlefield without armor or a sheild or a weapon and she was going up against heavily armed tanks. One blow, one shot, would kill her. If she was lucky, she might get away with major injuries, maybe an amputation or two because of the blast. Right now, looking at Raven, she might as well have been staring down the barrel of one of the military's cannons.

At least that would end her misery quickly.

Principal Raven, however, wouldn't be merciful like an automated weapon. He would drag this out as long as he could and make sure she told him every excruciating detail in his attempts to 'help' her.

He wasn't trying to help her. Everyone knew Raven was the most sadistic bastad on campus. The only person worse than him was probably the superintendent, Ms. Olivier Mira Armstrong, and everyone avoided her, no matter what. She was absolutely terrifying.

Oh, god, what if Raven took this to Armstrong? She'd get her behemoth of a brother, and the varsity football coach, involved and make the situation even worse.

"That's not what I heard," he said snidely.

"Maybe your ears need to be checked," she muttered under her breath.

"There's no shame in admitting to something. Please, make this easier for everyone and just answer my question. Did he or did he not rape you?"

"Rape me?" she cried incredulously. The nerve of that man!

"Answer!" Raven roared.

"Alright... I'll confess..." she said grimly.

"Excellent. So he did ra-"

"I seduced him. The fact that we knew each other when we were younger is true. I hadn't been able to forget him since then. When I saw him again, after all these years, I don't know what came over me and I seduced him. I made him sleep with me, threatening to ruin his reputation if he didn't," she lied.

If anything, she would protect Roy.

"Roy Mustang had no fault in it. I am the one to blame."

"I see..." Raven murmured thoughtfully. He hadn't expected this. The girl was a good student and in the top of her culinary class. But he did know a thing or two about teenage girls in love.

"I stand shamed. I will accept any punishment you give me," Sharlen demurred.

"I see..." he repeated.

Shharlen was only vaguely aware of the words oming out of Raven's mouth, but she didn't need to hear them. She already knew what kind of punishment she was recieving. She was getting kicked out of school. Her internship at Ducourte was being revoked. She would have to move out of her dorm within a week. The tuition for the remainder of the schoolyear would be refunded, but it woudl take a while to get the money back to her.

"Your grades are good. I can transfer you to a regular high school and you can keep all your general credits. It won't affect your grades very much, but I'm sure you don't need to know what else it is affecting," Raven said, pulling up her transcript on the computer.

"Right..." she answered numbly.

"What happened to this girl?" he asked, pointing to her school picture.

She looked at the image and wanted to grimace.

"She died..." she mumbled, getting up to leave. "She died a very long time ago."

"You may attend classes for the rest of the day, and are expexted for the duration of the week as well. You are dismissed," he said with a wave of his hand.

"Thanks," she replied blandly.

She walked down the hall a bit and leaned against the wall for support. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes and a series of sobs choked her. She wouldn't cry, though. She'd hold it back until she was somewhere less conspicuous. People tended to butt in and ask what was wrong if they saw someone crying. They didn't care; they just wanted to feel good about themselves by making them believe that they could care about other people.

But Sharlen knew better.

No one cared. People were selfish, vain creatures who cared only about themselves. They had no regard for others, didn't even care for others unless they helped them in some way. She hated people.

Moreover, she hated herself.

She just _had_ to be that stupid. She couldn't control herself, and look what happened. She should've known better. She did know better, her rationale just flew out the window. What had gone wrong, exactly? Nothing she could see.

Perhaps she was just a stupid teenage girl who believed she was in love.

Perhaps Roy really was a player like everyone said.

Perhaps she was just supposed to have rotten luck her entire life.

"It doesn't matter..." she muttered to herself, bracing one hand against the wall so she wouldn't sink to her knees in a sobbing, shaking mess.

She forced herself to stand up and went into a bathroom. She looked presentable; her makeup hadn't smeared from the tear-battle, which was a good thing. She walked briskly back to class and gathered her things, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Sharlen, are you okay?" Alphonse inquired.

"Yes, Alphonse, I'm fine," she answered blandly. "I've been dismissed for the day, and I'm not feeling well so I'm going to leave."

"Oh, okay. Feel better," he smiled kindly.

She doubted she'd ever feel better again.

"Goodbye," she said brightly as she meandered towards the door.

As soon as the door to the classroom shut, she broke into a run. She propelled herself, almost blindly, across the school campus and to her dorm. She didn't have much, just her clothes and a few books. She shoved all these items into a large black backpack and threw it at the closed door.

Now, she cried.

Where would she go? Where could she go? Maybe Riza's place... but she was working now, on an assignment in South City with half her co-workers. That included Roy. Maybe she could just swing by and drop off her things. She did have a spare key.

"That's a good idea," she said aloud, her voice distorted from the sobs and tears.

Salt water flowed copiously from her eyes, but she didn't bother doing anything about it. Let her makeup run across her face and down her cheeks. Who cared? She didn't. Not anymore, anyway...

She shouldered her backpack and began the long walk to Riza's apartment. It was a good walk, though. It killed plenty of time.

When she bothered to take note of the time, it was darkening. The sun was no longer visible, though faint edges of its light struggled to reach over the tops of buildings. Night encroached slowly, in its never-ending chase of the day trying to put a bit of darkness into the brightness. Or maybe it was the sun chasing the night, trying to spread light and happiness into the darkness of the night.

She preferred the night. Darkness suited her... suited her life.

In the darkness no one could see you cry.

No one would ask what was wrong.

No one noticed the blood.

But bleeding wasn't the answer. It stopped too quickly.

Jumping was better.

Yes, jumping.

_Jumping was the key. Falling, actually. Falling falling falling fallen all that was left to do was fall. Falling couldn't be stopped, not of no one was around. No walls no bottom no sides just falling no end no one no one nothing nobody nothing not a thing there was nothing there is nothing there always was nothing I am nothing._

She wandered in the streets blankly, almost blindly. She barely noticed the people passing by, the cars on the street, the rain steadily starting to fall.

_It doesn't matter doesn't matter nothing matters it's all in vain vain vain people are selfish and vain they care about themselves not other people no one cared no one cares I don't care don't care I just don't care I never really cared before I doubt I ever will doubt doubt doubt what? What do I doubt? Everything. Everything everything nothing everything there's nothing left for me to believe in my skills my abilities they can all go to hell they're worthless they're nothing I have nothing anymore nothing nothing not a thing I have nothing I had nothing I am nothing. No one cares no one cared no one will save me no one can save me salvation redemption they're all gone they never existed for me._

She came to an intersection and lingered at the fringe of a crowd waiting to cross the street. At some point, the lights changed colors and the people moved, but she didn't notice she just kept walking.

_Falling falling no going back there's nothing for me here anymore why am I here?_

Eventually, her aimless wandering led her to a part of the city that was less populated. People were out and about, but only a few people. A man loping along here, a couple staggering across the street there, a group of thugs over that way.

"Well, well, well, look who's here? The slut of Central Academy," one of them leered.

She knew that voice. It was Greed's voice. She hated that voice.

She saw Greed, and other people as well. Lucy from Ducourte was there, and Garret the head chef. She also saw Ernesto, a boy she'd seen at school, Walter, who attended teh elementary branch, and Sorcha, a secretary at the publishing office where Roy and Riza worked.

_Roy and Riza it has a nice ring to it Roy and Sharlen sounds strange weird I don't like it I hate it why did he bother with me I'm nothing he should've stayed with Riza that would've been better they look good together they care about one another even if they don't show it I'm just an outsider I'm only in their way I should get out of their way I should disappear._

"Leave her be, she's broken already," someone commanded. The others backed off, calling the other one, the one who had spoken, Pride.

Something snapped inside her and she ran. As fast and as far as she could.

_I shouldn't be here I'm in the way they belong together I'm an intruder I don't deserve him I don't deserve to be with him I don't deserve to be near him I'm just a stupid child I should get out of their way but how how how do I get out of their way?_

Her thoughts replayed in her head over and over, like a scratched CD that played one part over and over and over again. She kept running, until she was breathing heavily and felt like her heart would burst. To her dismay, it didn't.

_I should die then I'd be out of their way I'll be gone they won't have to worry about me feel sorry for me i'll be gone and they can get on with their life their life without me._

She stepped into the street, blindly, her vision blocked by tears and hair. She heard tires creeching and felt something hit her soundly in the stomach. It was like her mind had been separated from her body and she watched herself fall backwards, blood staining her shirt. She hit the ground, but it felt very far away and it was a very long time before she felt it. Her abdomen exploded in pain but she didn't cry; she couldn't. She had gone numb all over.

Someone was calling at her, screaming at her. She knew that voice. She loved that voice, and the body and soul that went with it. She couldn't have that body or that soul and even the voice was far beyond her reach.

_Don't help me let me die it's better this way can't you see that?_

The voice screamed again, but she couldn't make sense of the words. With great effort, she managed to open her eyes enough to see and forced her vision to focus. She could feel the blackness, the darkness of unconsciousness tugging at the edges of her mind, calling her.

The last thing she remembered seeing was Roy's face, twisted in fear, screaming things at her that she couldn't hear and touching her, but those touches felt very, very far away.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__3-3-11: Dun dun dunn!_

_I'm so mean. I apologize. Forgive me._

_How many angry reviews am I going to receive now?_

_I had pizza for lunch, on a lighter note._

_Um... I like how she took the blame. Mustang will probably still get in trouble (the Criminal and Civil Law part of my brain is on an extended vacation... or maybe honeymoon, since we're studying the marriage and divorce chapter now...) but I'm not going to write about that, mostly because that isn't what I've planned._

_The stuff in italics are Sharlen's thoughts. That's why there's no real punctuation, she's just thinking so rapidly without pausing to sort out her thoughts properly._

_Sadly, thats how I think when I'm in a really bad mood. I cut again today, actually. My mom yelled at me (she was drunk) and it's the only painkiller that works on my anymore. I've developed an immunity to medication. My mom used to give me happy pills when I was younger (I remember taking one while watching FMA... it was the first episode I ever saw, set in Liore during one of the riots... it was the old one, obviously), but they didn't do much. Medicine doesn't seem to work on me, for much of anything. Painkillers, cough medicine anything tastes nasty and doesn't work. Cutting works, though, as bad as it is. This one was on my collarbone. I have too many on my arms already and people will get suspicious if too many show up there, so I have to start using other parts of my body. I wish I didn't have to, though._

_Cutting is bad, very bad. Don't do it. Don't try it. It's not desirable. If you want to cut... or self-harm... or kill yourself _**GET HELP.**_ Even just talking to someone will help. It may not seem like it does much of anything except annoy you at first, but it will help eventually. It helped me once, but I have no one to talk to now, so I'm starting to regress. I don't need sympathy; I don't need pity; I just need someone to listen. Someone to listen and hold me, and be with me just because they want to be. Unfortunately, the one person I'd really want that from is very, very, very far away right now... I wonder if I'll ever see him in person... I dream about him almost every night._

_I've been reading 'Ordinary People' in my English class. It's a horrible book; don't read it. Especially if you've had experience with suicide. The main character attempted suicide. It's been reminding me of my attempts... my scars, my weakness, my shame. It's just too REAL for my tastes. It's basically about a boy who attempts suicide and his increasingly dysfunctional family. We've only finished chapter three, but I doubt the rest of the book is much different from the first three chapters._

_Ugh... both the chapter and Area are very dark, aren't they? I do apologize for that... next chapter (the last one!) will be much happier, promise. Raven's a bastard. Just saying. If you don't know who Raven is, read the FMA manga or watch Brotherhood part three. He's the big dark-skinned man who tried to get Olivier to do something with an immortal army and she kills him (go Olivier!) and he gets buried alive in concrete._

_Geez, can you believe I'll be done with this story by the next chapter? I already started my next under-fifteen-chapters story. It'll be a boy's love story. ;)_


	10. Installment 10

**Installment 10: The Promise**

She was dying.

Roy clutched his head in regret and agony.

That was the only explanation for why he had been sitting here like a fool for hour after hour now.

If only he hadn't been speeding. If only he had watched where he was going instead of playing with his iPod. If only he had taken a different route. If only he had waited until later to leave.

If he had to, he would spend the night here, hunched over in a plastic chair in the hospital waiting room unable to sleep because his mind would ask him all sorts of questions he couldn't answer. He'd wait until there was an answer.

The memory played out perfectly. It had happened hours ago, now, but felt like it had just happened.

He had left the apartment in a rush because Maes had called him saying he needed his help with something RIGHT AWAY. Being the good friend that he was, he jumped in his car and drove off, speeding because of the urgency he had heard in his friend's voice.

Out of nowhere, someone had run in front of his car. He had slammed on his brakes, but not fast enough. He had hit the person. He sat frozen in fear as he saw the person... the girl's... face. It was Sharlen, rain-soaked and looking utterly defeated.

He had called her name, called it over and over, repeatedly. She didn't hear him. People gathered around and he scrambled out of his car, nearly choking himself on the seatbelt he had forgotten to unbuckle. She had been bleeding, badly, from her stomach. From where he had hit her, drove into her. He sunk to his knees and pulled her body close to him. He realized he was crying when breathing became increasingly difficult. He held her and called her name over and over. She seemed to look at him, see him, for a moment. Her eyes then rolled back in her head and her body went limp in his arms. Still, he screamed at her. He had sworn to protect her.

He had killed her.

He was vaguely aware of someone touching him, making him stand up. Someone tried to take sharlen away, but he had only tightened his grip and screamed at them not to touch her. He blinked once and he was sitting inside an ambulance while she rested on his lap, her abdomen being swathed in heavy white bandages. He didn't loosen his grip on her for a moment. Her blood stained the fabric, bright brilliant red. The bandages were soon the same color as her hair: dark red. Someone had started changing them again when he blinked again.

Everything was white now, blinding, suffocating. The hospital, no doubt. Somene had pried him away from her. He stood up, shakily, and looked around. He couldn't see her. Where had she gone? She was in his arms only a moment ago. Someone touched him, guided him away. Someone with firm hands, gentle hands. He knew those hands. They were Riza's hands. They placed something in his hands. It was a cup. He swallowed the contents. Maybe that would make her leave. It wasn't that he hated her being there; he just wanted to be alone.

He blinked once more and was in the waiting room. Now it was the present; his flashback was over. It would replay itself again, surely, before the hour was up. It would play over and over in his mind. It was burned into his memory; he could not forget.

He would not forget.

He had loved her. For once in his life, he had let himself love someone. She was so easy to love too. Her smile, the way she walked, her voice... he loved it all. Her innocence, her perceptions of the world, her mood swings. Truthfully, he had been taken by her loveliness, that night he had first saved her. If not for the blood, she would've looked like a modern (albeit strange for sleeping on a car roof) Sleeping Beauty. Her face was smooth and serene, like nothing at all troubled her. Her hair was dark and glistened like garnets in the streetlights, spread out around her head like a red halo. Her skin had been pale and seemed to glow in those same streetlights. Her body had looked so skinny, so fragile, he had almost been afraid to move her, lest she break into a thousand pieces like a delicate glass sculpture.

No... that was wrong.

He still loved her.

He did love her. He probably always would, even if their relationship wasn't meant to last. Even if she died, he would still love her.

"You should eat," someone said gently.

"I'm not in the mood for eating food," he replied dully.

"You're not hungry?" the voice asked. Roy now noticed it was Riza's voice.

"Yeah..."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"My brain isn't working," he mumbled, looking at his scuffed up sneakers. He ought to get new ones.

Funny how, when the girl he loved may be dying, he was thinking about going shoe shopping.

It was funny how, in emergencies, one tended to think about things that didn't matter at all.

Time passed, like it often did when he wasn't paying attention. Instead of rushing by quicker than he could blink, it dragged on endlessly. Time was his enemy, always, always, always his enemy. Sharlen had been lost to time, thirteen years... now time was making him suffer, because no one would come and tell him what had been done, what was being done, to correct his mistake.

If it could be corrected at all, that is.

If she lived, if she came out okay, he would let himself love her. Really and truly love her, freely and openly, in the manner he found uncomfortable. Those stupid couples he saw on TV or in the movies or walking down the street... the ones who never let go of the other's hand, who hugged and kissed no matter how many people were around, who said foolish things out in public... he wanted that. Secretly, he had been jealous of those people. That was the root of his disgust... his indifference to romance.

He would do all the cheesy things others did: buy her flowers, take her out, whisper sweet nothings to her late at night... he wanted to spoil her.

"But I might not get the chance to..." he mumbled aloud.

Hours turned into days, and days into weeks. At one point, he had been allowed into her room. She wouldn't wake up, though. He blamed himself, in more ways than one.

He was vaguely aware of time, his enemy, passing and people coming and going. But they were all a blur, just a mass of moving color without a face or a name. His brain wasn't working properly. Nothing registered, nothing made sense. He didn't want it to, though. If things made sense, if he was brought back to reality, he would be fully aware of what happened, what he had done.

He had been a fool.

"How long have you been here?" a voice asked. There was something missing from that voice... sarcasm was missing. The person talking was being serious.

Roy looked up to see Edward looking down at him. For once, the blond's face was twisted in something other than anger or disgust. He was deeply concerned.

"I dunno..." Roy mumbled.

"Have you gone home at all?" he inquried.

Roy shook his head.

"Obviously not. Sitting there isn't going to do anything, you know. She won't wake up just because you're there. She'll have to wake up of her own accord," Edward recited.

"So?"

"That's what you told me when Al was in a coma. I hadn't left the room in weeks... honestly, I hadn't done anything. I'd become an empty shell, a dry husk, an echo of who I was before the accident. I didn't do anything... I wouldn't do anything until he woke up. And if he never did, I would join him. Then you came, angrier than hell, and beat some sense into me."

"What's it to you?" Roy asked, his voice raspy from lack of use.

Edward sighed and looked at the polished floor and the reflection of the lights.

"You're my friend and I care about you," the blond finally admitted. "I don't like you, but I do care what happens to you and if you let yourself sit here and waste away I'll have to resort to violence."

Roy watched out of the corner of his eye as Edward left the room. He heard him and his brother talking out in the hallway, but couldn't distinguish any words.

That's right... he had said that to Edward. She couldn't remember seeing someone so broken... so defeated. It was like he had given up on living and was waiting until he wasted away. He had just started work when the accident happened, and Roy had been concerned because he hadn't shown up in two weeks. He had heard about the accident, of course, but didn't take it too seriously. He had visited the brothers and slapped Edward so hard the boy had fallen out of his chair.

_"He won't wake up just because you're here. Would you really want him to wake up and see you like that, unkempt and broken? He'll wake up of his own accord. Just sitting there isn't going to accomplish anything. You can't blame yourself for what happened, and you can sit around wallowing in self pity. Stand up and get on with your life. You know that's what he would want you to do. He will understand."_

_"But... I did this. If I hadn't pitched a fit like some spoiled rotten kid this wouldn't have happened! If only I had mroe self control! If only I hadn't insisted we go out so late at night! If only I had taken a different route! If only I had taken the car in for repairs sooner, then that train wouldn't have hit us! He's my little brother and I'm supposed to protect him, but I did this to him!"_

_"If that's how you feel, I have no use for you. When you come back to life, let me know."_

It was the same.

It was exactly the same.

Roy laughed dryly at the memory. He was right... both he and Edward were right. He couldn't just sit here and do nothing; that wouldn't accomplish anything. He had to get on with his life. It was the best thing to do.

There was no need for him to sit around in a chair, deprived of sleep and with stiff muscles, and wait for something to happen. Things didn't get done by sitting around on one's ass and being lazy. He stood up and stretched, limbering his arms and legs. He started to leave when he remembered something.

"You didn't have to take the blame, you know. I would've taken care of it myself... but thanks for that. I'll be back later," he chattered, feeling stupid for talking to someone who might or might not hear him. "I was a fool too, so both of us are to blame."

"Still nosy... you haven't changed," a weak voice croaked.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

He was so happy he could cry. He pressed his hands to his mouth like some over-sensitive heroine of a shojo manga.

She was alive.

"You idiot..." he blubblered.

"Don't get so worked up. I don't go down so easily. Besides, I still have some dishes to cook."

"You came back to life because of food?" he asked with dread.

"Well, yeah, someone has to cook for you."

The tears flowed freely, twin waterfalls of salty droplets cascading down his cheeks.

"You're such an idiot. Why?"

"Stop poking your nose in my business. I'll explain it when I get around to it."

"I will not. I won't stop being nosy. I can't."

"Why not?"

"Occupational hazard?" he suggested.

Sharlen laughed. It was a faint, raspy sound and it grated against her chest.

"I had to come back," she sighed.

"Why?"

"Why?" she repeated. "Well... because I love you, that's why."

"You love me?" he asked uncertainly.

"Are you deaf?"

"No, I'm not. I'm just not sure I heard you correctly," he replied.

"How long was I out?" she asked.

"Three weeks."

"Oh... that's a pretty long time. Sorry if I made you worry."

"Worry? I was scared to death! I thought I had killed you!" he snapped.

"But you didn't," she pointed out.

"I suppose you're right," he nodded thoughtfully.

"Suppose?" she repeated.

"I'm just teasing you. Don't get so worked up," he laughed.

"It's because you said you'd protect me. Your words saved me. While I was out, I was standing at the banks of a river. Across the river was the most beautiful place I've ever seen, and behind me was just a big black void. I thought about going across the river, but something was missing. That pretty place wasn't perfect because you weren't there," she chuckled softly. "So I just had to come back, so I could see you again. I wouldn't want what you said to become a lie."

"Are you sure you made the right choice? I'm a well-known womanizer and heart-breaker. You might end up like dozens of other women in Central..." he said nonchalantly.

"I won't," she said firmly.

"And why not?" he inquired.

"Because you said you'd protect me, whether there are four of me... or seventeen of me... all of me would be protected."

"That's right. I said I'd protect you," he nodded for confirmation.

"I know, that's what I just said," she sighed angrily.

"I was just clarifying," he noted.

"Oh, go away," she huffed.

"i'll be back eventually. After I shower and change," he said, looking down at himself and grimacing. When had he last bathed, exactly? He couldn't remember, so it must've been a very long time.

"You sure you don't have a date?" she teased.

"Yes, I'm quite certain. Besides, the only woman I'd want to take out is lying in bed being lazy," he snorted.

"I'm not being lazy! I'm hooked up to five million machines like a medical marrionette!" she griped, gesturing at the tubes coming out of her arm.

"Get some rest. I'll be back soon," he said gently.

"You're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be?" he asked bluntly.

"Because I tried to kill myself..." she said, looking away.

Roy had to smile. He leaned over her and smoothed her hair back. "I'm not mad; I could never get mad. You were hurting, and I should've done something to help ease your pain. I'll always be here for you, always be by your side to protect you, because I love you."

"Really?" she asked softly.

"I promise."

She smiled. It was weak, but filled with more warmth than a hundred million suns.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2 **__3-4-11: See? It's a happy ending after all. I told you I'd make it happy, didn't I?_

_I wanted to kill Sharlen, though._

_At some point or another, I always want to kill off an OC that's in love with a canon character. Like in Godsend, I was planning on killing Aislinn (but that was when she was still Deceit) and now Christin's got a fatal disease. I won't reveal if she dies or not, you'll have to read Godsend to find that out._

_Speaking of reading Godsend, I am so sorry about the huge delay between chapters! I've been working on this one, because I've been close to finishing for about a week now, and wanted to get it out of the way. That and I have a bit of writer's block for Godsend. I am writing chapter 15, though, so please be patient! I promise I'll finish that story! After all the effort I've been putting into all three books, I'd have to finish it. It's like... a life requirement, for me to finish Godsend. Like I won't be acceptable as a human being if I don't finish it and won't be able to take my place in society (which will be behind a desk, drawing manga all day long and rolling my eyes at my editor's pleas to hurry up) and will be shamed for the rest of my life._

_So, I will finish Godsend, but it will take a little time. I thank you for your patience, and hope you will have more._

_So, what'd you think? What'd you think? not bad for something that doesn't have magical things flying around in every other chapter. I really like it. I'm not very good at writing stories that aren't fantasies (that sounded a little... 'yknow) so I'm very pleased with how this one turned out. I'm grinning smugly as I'm typing this. Please review and tell me what you think. I really wanna make this into a manga. Huzzah for shojo! Maybe I will if I get enough reviews. How many people read this story, actually? As far as I can remember, there are only two consistent reviewers, and they make up my entire fan base as far as I know! Lots of people reviewed for Godsend book 1... maybe my writing's bad in some way?_

_Or maybe I talk too much at the end of a chapter..._

_I've noticed that I've been working on two Godsend chapters at a time. I'll work on one about the twins, then when I get bored of writing that chapter I'll work on the next one about the brothers. Halfway through a chapter about the twins, I'll want to write about the brothers. Halfway through a chapter about the brothers, I'll want to work more on the twins' chapter._

_But isn't that more efficient than just writing them one at a time?_

_'I'm not in the mood for eating food' 'You're not hungry?' comes from a conversation my friends and I had a lunch not too long ago. Kelly Nelly Chan was saying that she wasn't hungry, but she said 'I'm not in the mood for eating food' and MoE replied 'You're not hungry?'_

_We also got into an argument over the manliness of a toga yesterday. Just because it went across the guy's chest doesn't make it unmanly! They did the same thing in 300! I think... I've only seen that movie one time a long time ago, so I can't remember too well. And yeah, he had long hair, but that doesn't mean anything! Ed has long hair and he's plenty manly! Though I don't think he'd walk around wearing a toga all day long._

_Speaking of Ed... what happened to him? He hardly showed up at all in this fic! Well, after all the hard work he's done on Godsend, everyone deserved a little break. Last I checked, he was asleep on the couch. and Roy and Riza have hardly shown up at all lately... actually, I don't think they've shown up on book 3 at all. I'm not counting their past lives Troy and Elizabeth, because there are differences between Roy and Troy and between Riza and Elizabeth. So they're the same, but not the same. Does that make sense?_

_I hope you enjoyed Horsefeathers. I did my best, so now review your hearts out! Leave lost of reviews! Leave really long ones! I want to see my email inbox full of review alerts for Horsefeathers! Pretty please with a marachino cherry on top?_


	11. Installment 11

**The Bonus Installment**

"Hold my hand, hold my hand!"

"I am."

"I'm scared. I am legitimately scared! Hold my hand!"

"I'm holding your freaking hand; I couldn't let go even if I tried!"

"OW!"

The early afternoon was warm and pleasant. A soft breeze occasionally swept through the city, carrying the scent of fresh flowers and fruit.

"You know, you didn't have to do that," Roy sighed.

"But she gave them to me... I couldn't just let them sit there in the box..." Sharlen whimpered. "It'd be disrespectful if I didn't wear them..."

"Not everyone has to have pierced ears," he snorted.

"But everyone she knows does! That's why she gave us all earrings!" she pouted, bringing a hand up to cradle her newly pierced ears. It was strange, having weight dangling from her earlobes. She flinched each time the copper roses brushed her neck.

"At least you got something useful. I just got this stupid flower thingamajig..." he sighed, opening the door to his apartment and gesturing at the flower sitting in a plastic box.

"I think it's called a buttoneire," she commented.

"Just hurry and get dressed. We have to be there early, you know..." Roy huffed.

"I know, I know..." Sharlen drawled, meandering off to the bedroom.

"I can't believe you _agreed_ to be the caterer on top of being a bridesmaid," he called down the hall.

"I don't mind, really. I love cooking," she replied. "And besides, all the bridesmaids and groomsmen have to do is stand there and look pretty."

"You know, now that I look around, you can't really tell that someone else lives here."

"What the hell kind of statement is that?" she asked.

"I'm just saying that normally when two (or more) people live together outsiders can tell. We've been living together for four months and my apartment looks exactly the same. The only difference is that it smells like a flipping restaurant," he chattered, grabbing his tuxedo jacket out of the closet.

"So what, you want me to place over-stuffed throw pillows everywhere, light a few of those creepy scented candles, and throw my clothes everywhere?" she asked sarcastically as she re-entered the living room.

"No, not really. I like it the way it is," he mumbled.

"Good, so quit complaining. I'm not the sort of girl who will stage a hostile takeover of someone's apartment," she snorted, fixing the large orange ribbon in her hair.

"I feel so much better now," Roy drawled.

"How do I look?" she asked, turning around to face him.

He looked her up and down. She wore a white and black dress and had her hair curled and held up in a half ponytail with a large orange ribbon, as per the instructions on the invitation.

"Like an adorable, redheaded penguin," he replied.

"Alright, let's get going. I've got lots to do," she sighed, grabbing her chef coat and storming for the door.

"You seem angry," he noted.

"I don't know how I'm gonna feed two hundred people. I mean, there's only so much food and it's not like I can just order twenty million pizzas, it's unelegant. It's a black-and-white wedding accented with orange for some reason, and pizza just won't cut it. Who want's to say 'Oh yeah we had pizza at our wedding. What kind? Little Ceasar's.' when they talk about it with people?"

"Are you going to be able to have any fun?" he asked as he unlocked the car and slid into the driver's seat.

"What kind of question is that? It's a wedding, if course I'll have fun."

The ride was silent for the most part. Roy left Sharlen alone to read over the menu Maes and Gracia had given her. Occasionally, she'd ask a food-related question, but that was it. He knew the routine by now. In the five months since she had been kicked out of Central Academy, she had changed more than he would've thought possible. She was still as skinny as hell, but she was more open and friendly, especially after she moved in with him four months ago. She no longer talked about suicide (or attempted it) and spent most of her time in the kitchen, since online schooling was more convenient.

"Why are there colorfully wrapped presents here?" Roy asked in the half-hour lag before the ceremony started.

"It's a secret," Maes smirked. "I'm surprised you don't know. You've been together for what, five months now? She knows, so don't you think she should know too?"

"I'm not even going to ask what you're talking about..." Roy grimaced.

"That's alright, I'd rather talk about Gracia anyway!" Maes gushed. "She's going to look absolutely gorgeous! I only saw the dress hanging up, but I just know she's going to be absolutely beautiful!"

_"Pick up the phone or I'm jamming your hand in the toaster again,"_ Roy's phone blared. He answered and put it on speakerphone.

"There's an issue with the cake. I might be a little late to the ceremony," Sharlen huffed.

"What's wrong with it?" Roy asked.

"The damn thing ain't here yet, that's what's wrong with it. The bakers took a couple wrong turns and got lost, but they're on their way. I have to stay here and help set it up and cart it to the reception hall..." she sighed.

"Alright, I'll tell Gracia."

"Tell her to have me in the back of the row so if I don't make it in time I can sneak in without being noticed," she replied.

"Got it," he nodded and ended the call.

The ceremony proceeded smoothly and without hassle. Sharlen snuck in without being noticed, so Roy assumed that no one had noticed that she wasn't there.

"Still working?" Riza asked at the reception.

"Clearly," Sharlen grumbled. She shifted the bowls in her arms and sighed. "Not only do I have no time to myself, but I have to keep getting food from the kitchen."

"You'll miss the bouquet toss," Roy added.

"So? I don't need flowers," she muttered.

A cry rang out through the reception hall, followed by peals of laughter. Sharlen looked down to see the bouquet of roses sitting in the bowls she was carrying. Astonished, she looked to Roy for help. Instead of providing assistance, he burst out laughing. She too joined the polyphony of sounds.

"How ironic!" Roy gasped for breath.

"Does this mean we have to get married now?" Sharlen asked, her voice sounding a bit dreadful.

"No, not right now. I think I can wait a bit for that," he snickered.

* * *

_**Area 51 1/2**__ 7-5-11:_

_I'M REALLY SORRY I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING!_

_It's really hard for me to get a second and a half alone to write my fanfics. I've also got the worst writer's block ever for Godsend. But I bought the Shamballa movie on Saturday (the day the new movie came out in Japan, ironically) so it should spark something._

_I've also been looking for a job for the past month, so yet ANOTHER excuse about why I haven't written._

_So here it is! A bonus chapter for HF, written by a fresh-out-of-high-school alchemicmonkey! I can't believe I actually graduated! I was so close to not making the cut, but I did and I so kicked ass! I really stood out at graduation too, because my gown and cap were a slightly different shade of green (and I sat in the front row) than the rest of my class. As gifts I got a 3DS and a camcorder. The past four years have really flown by... I can't believe I'm not gonna see some of my classmates EVER AGAIN... I really had a lot of fun in high school. I liked Junior year the best, because there was so much fucking drama senior year and during freshman year I was suicidal... and sophomore year was just blah. Enjoy school while you can, those of you still in school. You'll be wishing you were there again as soon as you leave._

_I __**promise **__I'll try to work on Godsend soon!_


End file.
